TESTIMONY OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



is an emulsion ; it is substantially water to the amount of 85 to 87 

 per cent., more or less, and the remainder is made up in part of 

 substances soluble in water, and in part of substances insoluble in 

 water ; all those substances insoluble in water are embraced chiefly 

 under the name of fat, and are held in suspension in the fluid. 



Q. Is chemical analysis alone capable, with entire certainty, of 

 determining if a given sample of milk has been treated with water ? 

 A. Science has not taught us to distinguish with certainty between 

 the water that is natural to milk, and within certain degrees the 

 amount of water which may have been accidentally or fraudulently 

 added to it; we have no precise means of determining which is 

 natural and which is added water within limits. 



Q. Tell me what do you understand by commercial milk ? A. I 

 understand by commercial milk that average product that is sold in 

 commerce, and which represents not the milk of one cow but the 

 milk of many cows. 



Q. Is there such a thing as normal or standard milk ? A. In the 

 scientific sense, no ; you might as well ask if there were normal 

 wine ; there is normal alcohol, but because wine contains alcohol 

 we cannot speak of normal wine nor normal roast beef ; there is 

 good milk and bad milk, good wine and bad wine, strong wine and 

 weak wine, good beef and bad beef, but there is not a normal stand- 

 ard in these things ; normal alcohol we have. 



Q. Is there a minimum and maximum standard of specific gravity 

 of milk ? A. I conceive there is that a minimum and maximum 

 must be established as the result of a pretty large range of observa- 

 tion. 



Q. What is the average between those two ? A. According to 

 the best of my memory I should say a fair statement of the general 

 average, throwing out extremes as exceptional, would be from 27 to 

 28 thousandths as the minimum, to 33 or 34 thousandths as the 

 maximum, that is to say 1.027 or 1.028 for the minimum, and 1.033 

 or 1.034 for the maximum ; I can give you the corresponding 

 degrees of the scale upon the New York Board of Health hydrometer 

 or lactometer if you desire it, I believe. 



Q. What will you say of the standard of 1.029 as a safe and reli- 

 able standard for commercial milk ? A. I should say that, as far 

 as my reading and knowledge go, it was a standard in favor of the 



