492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Any one, who knows what is meant by a cup of good tea, knows 

 also that a certain quantity of good cream is an essential ingredient in 

 it. There is, then, an incongruity between the inadequate supply of 

 milk and cream and the free use of wine in such households, and the 

 consequence is a serious nutritional loss to all the members of it. 



The question of expense, however, does come to be a consideration 

 in many families who are consistently economical, yet, even here, I 

 maintain that a false economy prevails, if milk be in any degree stinted 

 to their young and growing members. 



The poorer classes are greatly starved of milk in the towns. Many 

 among them so seldom get good milk that they acquire gradually a 

 complete distaste for what goes by the name. The same, too, is the 

 case with tea and coffee. The miserable decoctions which, among 

 the poor, pass for these precious beverages, are so far from what they 

 might and should be, that these people are naturally led to the un- 

 wholesome substitutions of bad beer and worse gin. A cup of good 

 tea or coffee, with abundant milk in it, is a very unwonted treat and 

 novel experience to the poor. I find much difficulty in enjoining the 

 use of milk among hospital out-patients (and I order nothing so freely), 

 partly, because they are incredulous as to its value ; partly, because 

 they can not get enough of it, and when obtained it is so inferior ; and 

 also, because they either dislike it, or allege that it disagrees wdth 

 them. A sickly laborer, for instance, accustomed to sundry pints of 

 beer and " drops " of gin, is aghast at the recommendation to substi- 

 tute for these a pint or two of milk. Milk is as nauseous for him as 

 his physic, possibly more so. 



Now, in the matter of taking milk, there are reasons why this re- 

 pugnance is felt. We most of us take, and enjoy, that which we have 

 been accustomed to get, and those who have been brought up largely 

 on milk naturally regard it with liking. Thus, the hardy Scotsman or 

 Irishman, who has been well nourished on buttermilk, can well appre- 

 ciate good milk when it is forthcoming. The southern Englishman is 

 a poor creature in this respect. 



Again, milk is a food that should not be taken in copious draughts 

 like beer, or other fluids, which differ from it chemically. If we con- 

 sider the use of milk in infancy, the physiological ingestion, that is, of 

 it, we find that the sucking babe imbibes little by little the natural 

 food provided for it. Each small mouthful is secured by effort, and 

 slowly presented to the gastric mucous surface for the primal digestive 

 stages. It is thus regularly and gradually reduced to curd, and the 

 stomach is not oppressed with a lump of half-coagulated milk. The 

 same principle should be regarded in the case of the adult. Milk 

 should be slowly taken in mouthfuls, at short intervals, and thus it is 

 rightly dealt with by the gastric juice. If milk be taken after other 

 food, it is almost sure to burden the stomach, and to cause discomfort 

 and prolonged indigestion, and this, for the obvious reason that there 



