?4 



energetic than starch or sugar as an aUment ; and also in the process 

 of digestion. The pancreatic fluid exercises its special influence in the 

 utihzation of fat food, assisting not only in the transfusion into blood, 

 but supplying the requisite amount of fat to the different tissues of the 

 body. 



The necessity for fat, varied by climate and circumstance, is aptly 

 illustrated in its extremes by the hard-working ploughman, with his 

 fat pork hunched on bread, in our temperate zone ; the blubber and 

 oil feeder of the Arctic regions ; and the sparing use of ghee, a 

 clarified butter used with rice, by the slight Hindoo of the tropics. It 

 will, however, be borne in mind that both sugar and starch are, in 

 process of digestion, fat formers ; a fact sufficiently illustrated by Mr. 

 Banting in his mode of treating extreme obesity. 



Butter consists of the fatty portion of cows' milk, in which it is 

 suspended in the foiTn of minute globules. The process of creaming 

 allows the milk to remain undisturbed and separates the layer foiTned. 

 By violent agitation, the act of churning breaks up these globules and 

 a fatty mass results, which invariably contains some casein or curd, 

 with milk-whey or water. The necessity for rigid cleanliness in the 

 appliances used is evidenced by the extreme care shown in all well- 

 kept dairies. Butter varies in colour and flavour ; depending on season, 

 food, breed, and the health of animals. It is singularly susceptible of 

 acquiring flavour from extraneous sources. The quality and character 

 of the food thus exercises a prominent feature in its manufacture, as 

 much made in those wild districts, where the grazing is essentially 

 different from our rich meadow land, is almost uneatable to ordinary' 

 palates— its odour and taste being absolutely nauseous. This is shown 

 more particularly in butter made in the extreme northern portions of 

 Europe, such as Iceland and Lapland. 



The worst feature, perhaps, in cow feeding, is the artificial stimulus 

 given by the excessive use of partially exhausted brewers' grains to the 

 lacteal secretion of the animal. I myself but lately had a sample of 

 milk brought to me distinctly tasting of castor-oil. The cause was 

 clearly traced to the use of rancid linseed-oil or cotton-seed cake. 

 Butter also made from the milk of cows fed largely on recently irrigated 

 sewage grass speedily acquires rancidity and mal odcur, and will not 

 keep as fresh butter. But, as the great supply of butter in bulk is a 

 collection and amalgamation of different herds and small lots of cattle, 



