MILITIA 



MILK 



193 



were liable to be called out in case of rebellion. 

 Their numbers reached in 1811 to 213,000 men. 



The militia of Scotland was not organised nntil 

 1797, though before that year corps of fencibles had 

 been embodied. It was to be raised by ballot among 

 men between the ages of nineteen and thirty. In 1802 

 it was brought under the same rules as the English 

 militia. The Irish militia dates from 1715, when all 

 Protestants from sixteen to sixty were bound to serve 

 or find snl>stitute8. Several subsequent acts of parlia- 

 ment altered the conditions of service, introduced 

 the ballot, &c., and finally in 1809 it was organised 

 in a similar manner to the English force. Besides the 

 infantry and artillery militia there are in England 

 four companies of engineer militia, fortress troops, 

 in Monmouthshire, and three in Anglesey : also six 

 divisions of submarine miners (dating from about 

 1884) at Portsmouth, Plymouth. Chatham, Har- 

 wich, Milford Haven, and the Severn mouth. 



The Channel Islands .Militia, dating from 1201, 

 consists of four corps of garrison artillery and six 

 battalions of infantry (in all about 4000 men), and 

 is recruited by conscription. All youths between 

 the ages of sixteen and eighteen are liable to drill 

 preparatory to lieiiig enrolled in the ranks of a regi- 

 ment. Each man has to serve ten complete train- 

 ings, ami then passes into the reserve, in which he 

 remains up to the age of sixty years. A sum of 

 i.'i>.">70 is voted by parliament in aid of this force. 



In Canada there are artillery and infantry militia 

 for home defence, and similar troops in all important 

 British colonies. The Hoyal Malta Fencible Artil- 

 lery is declared by the Army Act of 1881 to lie part 

 of the regular army, though not liable to serve out 

 of Malta except with their own consent. For the 

 militia of the United States, see ARMY, Vol. I. 

 p. 437, and UNITED STATES ; see also LAXDWEHR, 

 and the articles on the several countries. 



Milk i" an opaque white fluid secreted by the 

 mammary glandg of the females of the class Mam- 

 malia, after they have brought forth their young, 

 and during the period in which their ntl'spring arc 

 too immature to live upon ordinary food. It is 

 devoid of odour, except for a short time after its 

 extraction ; is of a slightly sweet taste, most com- 

 monly of a slightly alkaline reaction (except in the 

 Carnivora, in which it is acid ) ; and its average 

 specific gravity (in the case of human milk) is 1032. 



When examined under the microscope milk is 

 found to consist of numl-rli".s transpaient globules, 

 of very minute size, floating in a clear colourless 

 fluid, the milk plasma. These globules are com- 

 posed of fat, and they are each enclosed by a thin 

 envelope of an albuminous material termed ro.iv///. 

 When milk has stood for some time, the larger 

 globules rise to the surface and form a layer of 

 /',////, which is therefore i ieh in fat and poor in 

 other nutritive substances ( presently to be described ) 

 that are found in the milk plasma. When the 

 cream is removed skimmed milk remains. If this, 

 or lietter still the unskimmed milk, lie agitated in 

 a churn, the envelopes which surround the fat 

 globules are broken, the fat runs together, and we 

 have milk fat or butter. The albuminous casein, 

 which according to some encloses the fat globules, 

 but according to other oliservers exists in solution 

 in the plasma, is an albuminous sulistance combined 

 with calcium phosphate. This calcium phosphate 

 is necessary for it solution, and if its union with 

 the albumen lie interfered with, as by the addition 

 of an acid, the easein separates out in microscopic 

 filaments which interlace, enclosing the milk 

 gloliules, and forming a more or less solid clot. If 

 milk In; allowed to remain in nn open vessel and in 

 warm weather, a few hours will produce this result ; 

 the casein Huts in little masses, and we say 'the 

 milk him turned.' It in acid or sour to the taste, 

 and contains micro-organisms (bacterium 

 325 



by whose agency these changes are brought about. 

 These little microbes have the power of converting 

 the milk sugar into lactic acid, which in its turn 

 coagulates the casein. These microbes do not exist 

 in milk freshly passed from the mammary glands ; 

 they must find" their way into the milk, wnere they 

 rapidly multiply ; and, as their germs are very freely 

 distributed, this occurs sooner or later. The dairy- 

 keeper, by efficient ventilation and scrupulous clean- 

 liness, endeavours to keep his dairy and his milk as 

 free from these organisms as possible, and the care- 

 ful nurse scalds out the infant's bottle in order that 

 they may not multiply, as they will readily do, in 

 any stale milk, rapidly infecting the fresh milk 

 each time the bottle is used. The casein is not 

 only clotted by acids, but a secretion of the stomach 

 called rennet has a similar action. A teaspoonful 

 of a commercial infusion of rennet will cause half a 

 pint of milk, at a summer temperature, to form a 

 beautiful white clot, which subsequently contracts, 

 expressing the whey. This occurs in the stomach 

 when we drink milk, and this is one reason why 

 milk may disagree : in order to render it more 

 digestible it may be 'sipped' or it may be taken 

 with lime-water, for in this way the formation of 

 large clots within the stomach may be avoided. 

 The curds which form after the addition of rennet 

 can be made into cheese. In cheese, therefore, we 

 have a rich supply of nitrogenous matter (casein) 

 together with fatty matter derived from the milk 

 globules held fast in the curd. 



Milk contains a sugar milk sugar in solution, 

 and in addition a rather large proportion of inorganic 

 salts. It contains all that a child requires for the 

 growth and nourishment of its body, and is manu- 

 factured at great expenditure of the mother's 

 strength. The first milk that Hows from the breast 

 at the beginning of a lactation period is termed the 

 colostrum, and is rich in fat but poor in casein. 

 After a few days, during which time the child feeds 

 chiefly on its own tissues and loses weight, the 

 secretion becomes thoroughly established. In a 

 healthy, well-fed woman this continues for some 

 months, after which time the drain upon the energy 

 of the mother's body renders the milk poorer and 

 less nutritious. The milk contains the salts, chiefly 

 of lime, from which the infant builds its skeleton. 

 Where the children are ill nourished and rickety, 

 doctors often recommend the dilution of the milk 

 with lime-water, ignorant of the fact that milk con- 

 tains a considerably larger quantity of lime than 

 the lime-water itself. The lime-water diminishes 

 acidity, and renders the milk digestible, but hardly 

 adds lime ; rickets is generally due not to lack of 

 lime-salts in the food, but to want in the child's 

 system of the power to assimilate them. It is well 

 known that many medicines taken by the mother 

 are excreted in the milk, and this point must be 

 borne in mind by mothers suckling their infants ; 

 much nonsense is, however, believed in regarding 

 the fatal and sudden injury done to children as a 

 result of severe mental excitement on the part of 

 the wet-nurse. Owing to inability of the mother 

 either to nourish her offspring herself or to provide 

 it with a wet-nurse, it may be necessary to bring 

 it up on the milk of an animal ; see INFANT (FEED- 

 IN<! OF), BREASTS. 



The following table, which is based on researches 

 of Vernois and Becquerel, show the density and 

 composition of 1000 parts of milk : 



^v 6 " Su 8 r - Fttt - Salt*. 



89-24 43-64 28'66 188 



65-19 3803 86-12 fi'114 



83-35 32-7 24'36 528 



3665 60-46 18-53 S-24 



35-14 36-91 56-87 6-18 



69-78 39-43 61-31 716 



116-88 15-29 87-96 7'80 ' 



