The judgment emphasizes the challenges in setting reasonable standards for purity and adulteration of butter, considering the influence of living conditions on the Reichert Wollny number and the potential risks associated with setting the standard too low.

Horwill, J.

1. The petitioner has been convicted by the Second Presidency Magistrate of selling adulterated butter and thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 5, Clause (1)(a) and (b) of the Madras Prevention of Adulteration Act, read with Rules 28 and 29 under the same Act. He has been sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 100.

2. The prosecution case rests entirely on the evidence of the Corporation Analyst, with the figures that he gave for certain tests carried out by him and more important still, the inferences which he drew from the figures obtained. The accused examined on his side a gentleman who has had some experience of analytical work under the Bombay Government; and fortunately the figures that he obtained upon analysis were very much the same as those given by the Government Analyst in so far as the tests conducted by these two gentlemen were the same. The Government Analyst conducted four tests. He estimated the Beichert Wollny value, the Befractive Index, and the Saponification value; and he then calculated from the Beichert Wollny number and the Saponification value the Juckenack and Pasternack value. D.W. 1 estimated the Reichert Wollny value and the Saponification value and the Refractive Index. He did not calculate the Juckenack and Pasternack value; but he carried out three other tests to estimate the Polensky value, the Iodine value, and the Phytosteryl Acetate number. The Reichert Wollny value for the specimen in question was found to be 21.8 by the Corporation Analyst and 21.91 by D.W. 1. The Refractive Index was found to be 1.4549 and 1.4545 by these two gentlemen respectively. The Saponification values found by them were 216.9 and 217.8 respectively.

3. The Corporation Analyst deposed that the Reichert Wollny number varies in Madras from 28 to 40 for buffalos milk and from 25 to 35 for cows milk; so that the value obtained for this particular specimen was considerably below the minimum which he considered to be consistent with its being pure cow or buffalos fat. The Refractive Index, he says, varies from 1.4525 and 1.4565. The Refractive Index of the specimen in question was found to be 1.4549, which lies about half way between these two extremes. This in itself is merely a negative result; for the Refractive Index can be easily manipulated by balancing the kinds of fats that are used in adulteration. The Saponification value was found to be 216.9, whereas the lower limit which the Corporation Analyst considers to be consistent with the purity of the specimen, is 219. It is thus seen that both as regards the Reichert Wollny value and the Saponification value the specimen gave results which the Corporation Analyst considered could not be obtained from pure butter, whether obtained from cows milk or buffalos milk. He estimated that the degree of adulteration was 20 per cent., which percentage he obtained by subtracting the Reichert Wollny number from the minimum permissible, viz., 28, and calculated the difference as a percentage of 28. The purport of D.W. 1s evidence is that in practice the Bombay Government did not prosecute unless the Reichert Wollny number fell below 19 and that as this sample was not below 19 and the Saponification value was not unduly low, especially having regard to the lownesss of the Reichert Wollny number, with which it increases or decreases, it was unsafe to assume that the specimen was not pure butter.

4. There is no doubt in my mind that the figures found for this specimen of butter were abnormally low for pure butter. Reference was made here in the argument to the discussion of these tests in a number of text-books, such as, Warburtons "Chemical Technology," Analysis of Oils, Fats, and Waxes by Lewkowitsch, Boltons Oils, Fats and Fatty Foods, Woodmans Food Analysis, Allens "Commercial Organic Analysis," and Thorpes "Dictionary of Applied Chemistry." All these treatises indicate that the normal Reichert Wollny value and Saponification value are what are conside