ELEMENTS OF MILK. 13 



For the study of milk by dairymen, it is seldom necessary 

 to carry to analysis, any further than to separate it into five 

 or six of the compound elements that make up its substance. 

 These are, albuminoids in the form of caseine and albumen ; 

 sugar, butter or fatty matter; water, and ash, or mineral 

 matter. Each of these substances is a compound capable of 

 separation into several different elements. There is no fixed 

 relation between the several parts or compounds of which 

 milk is composed. They exist in an almost endless variety 

 of proportion. They vary with every varying circumstance 

 in the health and treatment of the cow, and with the ever- 

 varyiug constitutions of different cows. It is rare, indeed, 

 in any herd, to find any two cows that will give milk exactly 

 alike. It is extremely difficult, therefore, to establish any 

 definite standard which would be an exact representation of 

 milk in general. But the milk of a large number of cows 

 mixed together will, under ordinary circumstances, show 

 about the following result in one hundred parts : — 



Albuminoids, caseine and albumen, . . . .3.25 



Butter, 3.50 



Sugar, ......... 5.50 



Ash, 75 



Solids 13.00 



Water, 87.00 



100.00 



To discuss all the elements of milk would require a ple- 

 thoric octavo ; I propose to speak to-day chiefly of its fatty 

 matters. All the constituents of milk, except the butter, exist, 

 not only in a state of complete solution, but in chemical union 

 with each other and the water which the milk contains. The 

 butter alone exists in a solid state. If the solution was wholly 

 divested of the particles of butter, it would be as transparent 

 and colorless as water. The white color of milk is due to the 

 presence of the innumerable solid globules of butter. These 

 butter globules, or, as they are sometimes called, milk glob- 

 ules, are mechanically suspended in the liquid mass, and float 



