with great attention during the process of oil-making, it is not to be
wondered at that by no means all or even the greater part of the oil
produced in the most favored districts of Tuscany is of the highest
quality. On the contrary, the bulk is inferior and defective.

These defective oils are largely dealt in both for home consumption
and export, when price and not quality is the object.

In foreign countries there is always a market for inferior, defective
olive oil for cooking purposes, etc., provided the price be low. Price
and not quality is the object, so much so that when olive oil is dear,
cotton-seed, ground-nut, and other oils are substituted, which bear
the same relation to good olive oil that butterine and similar
preparations do to real butter.

The very choicest qualities of pure olive oil are largely shipped from
Leghorn to England, along with the very lowest qualities, often also
adulterated.

The oil put into Florence flasks is of the latter kind. Many years
back this was not the case, but now it is a recognized fact that
nothing but the lowest quality of oil is put into these flasks; oil
utterly unfit for food, and so bad that it is a mystery to what use it
is applied in England. Importers in England of oil in these flasks
care nothing, however, about quality; cheapness is the only
desideratum.

The best quality of Tuscan olive oil is imported in London in casks,
bottled there, and bears the name of the importers alone on the label.
There is no difficulty in procuring in England the best Tuscan oil,
which nothing produced elsewhere can surpass; but consumers who wish
to get, and are willing to pay for, the best article must look to the
name and reputation of the importers and the general excellence of all
the articles they sell, which is the best guarantee they can have of
quality.

* * * * *

BEESWAX AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.

Beeswax is a peculiar waxy substance secreted only by bees, and
consisting of 80.2 per cent. carbon, 13.4 per cent. hydrogen, and 6.4
per cent. oxygen. It is a mixture of myricine, cerotic acid, and
cerolein, the first of which is insoluble in boiling alcohol, the
second is soluble in hot alcohol and crystallizes out on cooling,
while the third remains dissolved in cold alcohol.

Although we are unable to produce real beeswax artificially, there are
many imitations which are made use of to adulterate the genuine
article, and their