152 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
of the Cheese curd, or casein, by neutralizing the free lactic acid 
which inevitably exists in the milk beforehand, as well as any 
other free acids which are present in the Cheese ; and the second 
reason is of greater weight: salts of potash are essential for 
mankind as necessary constituents of his food; they exist 
abundantly in all kinds of wholesome vegetables, and fruits, and 
in the juices of fresh meats, but they are wanting in Cheese, having, 
because of their greater solubility, been left behind in the whey. 
This absence of potash seems to me to be the one serious objection 
to a free use of Cheese diet exclusively.” Cheese, says an old 
adage, digests everything but itself,—<Caseus est nequam : 
digerit omnia sequam.” 
Quite lately casein, the proteid, or chiefly nutritious part of 
milk, has been separated in the powder form, dry, as Plasmon, 
this being devoid of water, fat and sugar, but also of such potash 
salts as remain dissolved in the liquid portion of the milk (unless 
evaporated out, and added again). The Plasmon, or pure casein, 
is obtained from skim milk, and is intended for addition to other 
foods, to increase their stock of proteid. It is the product of 
separated milk, as a fine white powder, being literally Cheese 
without its fat and its milk sugar, nothing remaining practically 
except pure casein, or flesh-forming material, utilizable with 
obvious advantage for many combinations. Dr. Robert 
Hutchison recently, in an address on Patent Foods delivered to 
the S.W. London Medical Society, whilst passing a sweeping 
condemnation on most of these as costly, and unequal to plain 
ordinary foods, went on to add encomiums on one class of such 
foods in which the casein, or proteid of milk has been separated 
in its integrity, for being added to enrich other foods as to their 
sum of proteid. “I think,” he concludes, ‘one may say that 
these are among the most useful of all artificial foods. There is 
no doubt that preparations of the kind can be added in very 
large amount to ordinary foods, such as soups, and milk, and 
even to some solid foods with great benefit, and without the sick 
person being aware of such addition; and, seeing that these 
preparations certainly contain 80 or 90 per cent of pure proteid, 
it can be well understood that the amount of nutritive material 
which they are the means of supplying is considerable. I know 
of no special indications necessitating their use, but there are 
many conditions of disease where one wants to enrich a fluid 
diet. If a patient is on pure milk, and you desire to increase 
