258 



Adulterated Milk. 



Vol. IX. 



is no Class, and therefore only occasional 

 lectures. In the universities of Edinburgh 

 and Aberdeen, there are Chairs of agricul 

 ture: but even in Scotland no provision has 

 yet been made for a sysle^natic aq-ricultural 

 education. The Edinburgh Chan: is, how- 

 ever, numerously attended, and has the ad- 

 vantage of an illustrative 'b^lmcnm.— Edin- 

 burgh Review. 



Adulterated Milk, 



The inhabitants of large cities are con- 

 stantly complaining, and with very good 

 reason, that the article sold to them under 

 the name of milk, is systematically adulter- 

 ated. The udder of the cow supplies merely 

 the basis of the compound; water, and cer- 

 tain foreign substances to give it the requi- 

 site whiteness, forming the other ingredi- 

 ents. The colouring matter is made from 

 things of which the public at large have 

 very little notion. The prevailing belief 

 regarding the London milk manufacturer is, 

 that chalk is their favourite pio-ment. Their 

 brethren of Paris, however, employ a more 

 extensive range of adulterating substances- 

 such as flour, piaster of Paris, calves' lights, 

 and a still more extraordinary animal sub- 

 stance, namely, dogs' brains. 



TJiis system of adulteration is the more 

 aboniinable, when 'we consider that, of all 

 species of food proper for the support of hu- 

 man life, milk is the most useful. It is un- 

 like any other aliment in this respect— that 

 it has the power of sustaining life without 

 the assistance of any other sort of suste- 

 nance. Though man cannot live by bread 

 alone, yet nature can be fully sustained by 

 milk, were he reduced to have nothing else 

 to sustain him. Its consumption, therefore, 

 is very great in every part of the world ex- 

 cept in China, where it is never used as a 

 beverage. It has been computed that the 

 average consumption of milk in Paris durino- 

 the year 1837, was about 15,000 gallons pe^ 

 day. What the daily consumption of Lon- 

 don may be, is not to be ascertained. If vve 

 reckon it in proportion to the population of 

 the two cities, about 30,000 gallons of milk 

 may be consumed every day in the great 

 metropolis. 



In Paris, everything is done, from the 

 highest function of government to the pet- 

 tiest public convenience, by an "administra- 

 tion." Hence the purveyance of milk to 

 the Parisians is effected by an '' adminislra- 

 iioii" which was formed by, and remains 

 under the surveillance of. Monsieur the pre- 

 fect of police. The whole country around 

 the capital is laid under contribution to sup- 



ply It with milk, some of which comes from 

 a distance of fifty miles. The details of this 



important a(/m«m7raa'on are as follows: 



In certain villages near to Paris, are situ- 

 ated large establishments, which serve aa 

 depots for the reception and distribution of 

 milk. Of the largest, one belongs to M. 

 Delanos, at Cormeille-en-Vixen, on the road 

 to Dieppe, and another to M. Delacour, at 

 Envery. From each of these central estab- 

 lishments — laiteries centrales — a number of 

 light carts are despatched twice a day, to 

 collect the milk from the different farmers,, 

 each having a round or district of its own. 

 These vehicles start and arrive with the 

 punctuality of a clock, so that, if the coun- 

 try people are not ready with their quota of 

 milk at the minute the collector calls, they 

 lose the sale of it. These collections are 

 o managed, that each charioteer arrives at 

 the central depot with his milky freight ex- 

 actly at the same hour. A certain portion 

 of It is retained in the house to be converted 

 into cream, butter, and cheese, and the rest 

 is sent on direct to Paris. M. M. Delacour 

 and Delanos have distributed throughout the 

 capital a vast number of little milk shops, 

 which their friend the prefect of police, has 

 placed in such parts of the town as will pre- 

 vent rivalry between them ; so that each of 

 these great milkmen has a separate territo- 

 ry, over which— in the matter of milk— he 

 despotically presides. From these local de- 

 Yiots— laiteries— the public obtain their milk 

 with a punctuality quite equal to that with 

 which they receive letters through the post. 

 M. Delacour rents above seventy of these 

 small shops; but the older established, M. 

 Delanos, boasts of nearly donble that num- 

 ber. There are, besides, smaller proprietors 

 in direct correspondence — by rail-road and 

 other public conveyances — w'ith cow-feeders 

 and farmers in the neighbourhood of Paris. 

 M. Lenoir, an eminent statist, computes that, 

 in 1837, about 8,700,000 francs— above £350, 

 400 — were spent for milk in Paris. 



The milk-trade of London has, like that 

 of Paris, its great proprietors. Of cow- 

 keepers, the representatives of the late Mr. 

 Rhodes, of the Ilampstead road, and of Mr. 

 Laycox, of Islington, must be considered the 

 aristocracy. There was s tradition respect- 

 ing the former gentleman's establishment, 

 which may serve to show its magnitude; 

 namely, that so many as a thousand cows 

 could never be maintained upon it; for so 

 sure as the thousandth was added to the 

 stock, one of the nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine died, so as to leave that exact number 

 alive, and no more. The herd of the Isling- 

 ton proprietor is, we have been told, equally 



