CONDENSED MILK IN ENGLAND. 467 



article of their diet long after they have cut their teeth and are able 

 to masticate bread and meat. No inconsiderable quantity of milk is 

 also consumed by adults, and its nutritive effect is not exceeded by 

 any article of diet, as it contains all the constituents that are neces- 

 sary to the perfect nutrition of the human body. 



There are, however, several drawbacks in the use of cow's milk 

 which diminish its utility, limit its use, and sometimes render it dan- 

 gerous. One of the great drawbacks in milk is its liability to decom- 

 position. The sugar it contains becomes acid, the caseine separates in 

 the form of curd, and a fermentation ensues which renders it unpleas- 

 ant and sometimes even dangerous as an article of diet. The latter 

 effect is seen more particularly in young children. During the sum- 

 mer months they suffer extensively from diarrhoea, and there is little 

 doubt that this is largely due to the acidity of the milk which is given 

 to them. Milk bought in the morning in London is frequently unfit 

 to be used in the evening for the diet of infants. These changes in 

 milk are hastened by the present system of bringing milk to London 

 from a distance in cans, by which means it is shaken, and its tendency 

 to change hastened. 



Another drawback in the use of milk is its liability to adulteration. 

 Unfortunately, the agent by which milk is adulterated is easily acces- 

 sible, and can be detected with great difficulty. We cannot instruct 

 cooks and poor people in the use of lactometers and hydrometers by 

 which the learned test milk ; moreover, the natural liability of milk to 

 vary is very great. Thus the quantity of cream in milk received by 

 the Aylesbury Condensed Milk Company varies from 9 to 17 percent. 

 Dr. Hassell states that the cream given by the milk of a c<Jw, the milk 

 of which he personally inspected, was but 4|- per cent. Although, 

 then, all milk containing less than 9 per cent, of cream may be sus- 

 pected of adulteration, yet it may happen that a milk containing but 

 4^ per cent, may be really not adulterated with water at all. 



This varying quantity of cream also shows that, even when milk is 

 not adulterated, it is liable to great variations in the quantity of 

 cream which may be taken as the measure of its usefulness as an ar- 

 ticle of food. 



Many attempts have been made to overcome these objections to 

 the use of milk, and from time to time preparations of it have been 

 sold by which freedom from acidity and adulteration is secured. The 

 most available of these preparations have been those that submitted 

 the milk to a process of evaporation by which more or less of the 

 water naturally contained in milk is got rid of. By these processes 

 the nutritive constituents of the milk are retained ; the preparation 

 keeps for some time, is easily conveyed from place to place, and, by 

 the addition of water, milk, so to speak, is readily manufactured. None 

 of these preparations, however, seemed to succeed till a process for 

 making what is called " condensed milk " was introduced. Whether 



