MILK. 479 
be an impossiblé dream ; at the most all that can be done is to 
drive off the water which the food contains in excess, and even 
then most of it must be returned to the food before it can be 
eaten.” (See LozeNnGEs, p. 437). 
MEDLAR, (See Fruits). 
MILK. 
THERE are ruminant, human, asinine, and equine varieties of 
Milk, all available for our sustenance, and curative uses. The 
essential difference between human milk, and that of ruminant 
animals (cow, goat, and sheep) lies in the character of their 
casein, or curd, and its proportions to those of the other albumins. 
The milks of all mammals consist of water, holding, in virtual 
or actual solution, salts, sugar, casein, and other albumins, with 
minute globules of fat uniformly suspended in the liquid, but 
tending to come to the top by reason of their lower specific 
gravity. Milk shares with oysters the advantage of containing 
within itself representatives of all three nutritive main divisions 
of food, the proteids, the carbohydrates, and the fats. But 
because milk is the pattern natural food of the human species, 
and of mammals, during the whole period of their most rapid 
young growth, it must. not therefore be taken as a model diet 
for adults. This is evident from the fact that grass is the super- 
lative food for the cow, by instinct, and milk that of the calf. 
Human milk is always alkaline, cows’ milk being either alkaline 
or acid, whilst that of carnivorous animals is acid. Cow’s milk 
contains a little carbonate of sodium, and if a small quantity 
of acid be added thereto (for instance lemon juice or vinegar), 
some carbonic acid gas is given off, the sugar of milk being 
converted into lactic acid, so that then the milk does not go 
sour. Milk sugar is chemically lactose. Sydney Smith writing 
(1820) to Mrs. Meynell about the nurture of her infant son, said, 
“ The usual establishment for an eldest landed baby is two wet 
nurses, two dry ditto, two aunts, two physicians, two apothecaries, 
three female friends of the family, unmarried, advanced in life ; 
and often in the nursery one clergyman, six flatterers, and a 
grandpapa. Less than this would not be decent.” During 
the growing time of youth, the preponderance of nitrogenous 
matters present in milk makes it a most useful food ; but in 
