LIQUID PARTS OF ANIMALS. 



follows from them that not merely the ratios, but the constituents 

 themselves had been altered by disease. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OF MILK. 



MILK is a fluid secreted by the female of all the animals be- 

 longing to the class of Mammalia., and intended evidently for 

 the nourishment of her offspring. 



The milk of every animal possesses certain distinctive peculia- 

 rities, but the milk which, from time immemorial, has been 

 chiefly used by man as an article of food is that of the cow. It 

 will be proper, on that account, to give, in the first place, an ac- 

 count of that milk. We may afterwards point out the charac- 

 teristic distinctions between it and that of other animals. 



We have only to open the Old Testament or the writings of 

 Homer, to be satisfied at how early a period the milk of the cow 

 was used as an article of food. Herodotus informs us that the 

 common drink of the Scythians in his time was the milk of mares.* 

 It appears from the same passage of Herodotus that the Scythians 

 were acquainted with the mode of making butter. And Hippo- 

 crates, whose era was not much later than that of Herodotus, 

 describes their process very clearly : " The Scythians," says he, 

 " pour the milk of their mares into wooden vessels, and shake it 

 violently. This causes it to foam, and the fat part, which is light, 

 rising to the surface, becomes what is called butter (/3o-j7ugov). 

 The heavy or thick part, which is below, being kneaded and pro- 

 perly prepared, is, after it has been dried, known by the name of 

 hippace (/T^axTj). The whey, or serum, remains in the middle, f 

 Hippocrates, as appears from this passage, was acquainted with 

 butter. He gives it in his writings the name of pickerion (TTIXS- 

 g/ov). This seems to have been the old Greek name for butter. 

 But it went out of use, and the term fiovrvgov came in its place. 



There is no evidence that butter was known to the ancient 

 Hebrews. What is translated butter in the Septuagint, and that 

 translation has been adopted in our Bible, is admitted to have 

 meant cream, and not butter. It was known to the Greeks soon 



* Melpomene, cap. 2. f De Morbis, lib. iv. p. 67. Edit. 1595.' 



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