8 April, 1908.] A Xetu Reaction for Milk. 251 



hard patches, old tracks, &c. Indeed, it may be very useful if used for 

 that purpose only. Instead of ploughing 4 to 5 inches with the risk of 

 bringing up more or less of the subsoil, the plough may be set for a bare 

 3 inches and the subsoiler set for say 2 inches lower. This will give 

 complete turning over and stirring for a depth of 5 inches w'ith less 

 draught than if ploughed to the same depth at one operation. Mr. Kemp 

 states that at Sea Lake in the Mallee District, the adoption of the above 

 device resulted in a crop of over 5 bushels to the acre in a drought year 

 while in the same paddock ploughed in the ordinary way, the results were 

 much less, 3 bushels only, in fact. The patentee has added an ingenious 

 arrangement of levers for lifting the foot out of the ground for turning, 

 &c. 



Too great stress cannot be laid upon the advantages of deep stirring 

 of the soil, both for drv and irrigation farming, so long as the subsoil 

 is kept in its place and not brought to the surface, and this new foot is a 

 welcome addition to the farmer's appliances for such a purpose. It is 

 intended to use the attachment in some of the subsoiling experiments to 

 be carried on at the Wvuna Irrigation Farm this season. 



A NEW REACTIOX DIFFERENTIATIXG RAW MILK 

 FROM HEATED (PASTEURIZED) MILK, AS WELL AS 

 FOR THE DETECTION OF HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. 



IT. Percy Wilki/ison, Goi'cniinoit Analyst for Victoria, and Ernst 

 R. C. Peters, Analyst, Government Laboratory, Victoria. 



The chemical methods at present in use for distinguishing raw milk 

 from boiled milk (or milk heated alKj\e 78-80 deg. C.) are based on : — 



1. Coagulation of the casein and detection of albumen in the st^rum 



filtrate. 



2. The propertv of unboiled (raw) milk of liberating oxygen from 



hydrogen peroxide, and detection of the nascent ox \ gen Ijv 

 suitable reagents. 



The processes which are based on the coagulation of casein and 

 detection of albumen in the filtrate are mostly too tedious and troublesome 

 for practical purposes, for this reason the methods of class 2 are usually 

 adopted. Babcock^ discovered in 1889 that raw milk possesses the 

 property of decomposing hydrogen peroxide forming nascent oxygen and 

 water, while boiled milk does not. The reason for this decomposition was 

 investigated by a number of chemists and several theories were suggested. 

 Dr. Neumann Wender- in an interesting article on the enzymes of milk 

 concludes that the action is due to an enzyme which he termed peroxydase, 

 an anaeroxydase, which possesses the propert\" of liberating oxygen from 

 peroxides and transmitting the same to oxidisable substances. This enzyme 

 is desfroved bv heat and becomes inacti\'e at a temperature of about 

 78 deg. C. 



IBabcock, ^.M. The Constitution of Milk, Sec, Bull. No. iS, Agr. Exper. Stn. 

 University of Wisconsin, Madison, iS8q. 



2 Oesterreichiscbe Chemikf rZeitung, 1903, 6, i. 



