63 



Prof. P. Vieth, of the British Society of Public Analysts, for the eleven 

 years inclusive of 1881-1891, examined 120,540 samples of milk, and 

 found an average of constituent parts as follows: 



Per cent. 



Total solids 12. 09 



Fat 4.01 



Solids not fat 8.8 



(See p. 664, Mass. Report for 1891.) 



In the Massachusetts Health Report for 1891 (p. 664), an analysis 

 shows 13.2 to 13.3 per cent of total solids, and the same report gives 

 this standard: Solids (except in May and June), 13 per cent; for May 

 and June, 12 per cent. 



Dr. Abbott, secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, 

 after quoting the analysis of Prof. Vieth, says: 



As a general rule, the figures presented by Prof. Vieth show that milk of the first 

 half of the year was slightly below, and that of the last half slightly above, the 

 yearly average. In commenting upon the effect of seasons upon milk, the same 

 writer says : 



"A. bad season for haymaking is, in my experience, almost invariably followed 

 by a particularly low depression in the quality of milk toward the end of winter. 

 Should the winter bo of unusual severity and length, the depression will be still 

 more marked. Long spells of cold and wet, as well as of heat and drought, during 

 the time when cows are kept on pasture, also unfavorably influence the quality, and, 

 I may add, the quantity, of milk." 



The foregoing remarks have reference only to milk as regarded from the stand- 

 point of chemical analysis. To a certain extent this view of the subject has a bearing 

 upon the public health, since the addition of water to milk, or the abstraction of 

 cream, impairs its quality as nutriment in proportion to the extent of the adultera- 

 tion. Strangely enough, the pretense is often urged by milk producers that rnilk 

 containing 11 or 12 per cent of total solids is quite as wholesome or nutritious as 

 that which contains 13 or 14 per cent of solids. The absurdity of this argument is 

 plain enough, since, if it were true, it might reasonably be asserted that milk having 

 7 or 8 per cent of solids is as wholesome as that which has 11 per cent, and so on ad 

 Infinitum. 



FOOD LEGISLATION AND FOREIGN TRADE. 



If proper legislation is adopted, without extending too much the army of office- 

 holders or interfering too much with private enterprise, it will be of benefit in 

 extending our foreign trade. American Analyst. 



MAXIMUM WATER ALLOWABLE IN BUTTER. 



The following is an extract from the proceedings of the Public Ana- 

 lysts, found in the London (England) Analyst for March, 1893: 



During the discussion Mr. Allen said that he had very strongly laid down in the 

 witness box and elsewhere that 15 per cent was the maximum quantity of water to 

 be allowed in butter, which could be raised to 16 per cent as an outside figure. He 

 thought a rigid line should be drawn at 16 per cent and be believed that if that 

 were done there would be very little difficulty in reducing the quantity of water in 

 commercial butters to that amount. Some people could, no doubt, be found who 

 would excuse even 35 or 40 per cent, and an inspector from the Cork butter market 

 recently stated on oath that the proportion of water in the butter depended on the 



