Brazil nuts, Para nuts, Cream nuts, etc., are the seeds of Bertholletia iobilis Miers and B. excelsa Humb. and Bonpl. The nuts are harvested in the months of January, February, and March, when the heavy pericarps containing the seeds fall to the ground. They are collected and transported from the forests to the seaports at a time of year when heat and moisture favor fungous growth, and often a cargo reaches New York 30 per cent spoiled. The United States Bureau of Chemistry holds that nuts are adulterated food if more than I5 per cent are spoiled, and requires that such nuts be shelled before being placed on the market. In spite of these measures, however, Brazil nuts reach the consumer containing from IO to 25 per cent of spoiled nuts. There were 43,076,348 pounds of Brazil and Cream nuts shipped into the United States in i919 (7). It is probable that half of this amount, or 2I,538,i74 pounds, were retailed in the shell. It is conservative to estimate the loss through spoiled nuts at IO per cent of this amount, or 2,153,8I7 pounds, an approximate money loss, at 40 cents per pound, of $86i,526.80, which falls directly upon the consumer. Brazil nuts do not become rancid very readily, and for this reason they are not placed in cold storage during warm weather as are most other nuts. They are heaped in piles in supposedly dry and often very