n] PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OF MILK 15 



Genuine milk containing such a low percentage of 

 fat is no doubt of very rare occurrence, yet it may 

 occur ; and not to take this into consideration may 

 seem to savour of injustice. But the question 

 arises : Ought it to make much difference, where the 

 quality of the milk is so poor, whether the sample 

 has been adulterated in the technical sense that is, 

 been submitted to a watering process subsequent 

 to its being obtained from the cow's udder or not ? 

 for it is obviously unfair that a person who expects 

 to obtain ordinary milk should be provided with 

 abnormal milk. A man selling such abnormal milk 

 should be treated very much in the same way as a 

 ma|L selling' adulterated milk. Milk, therefore, 

 shdwt be ''defined under the Sale of Foods and^ 

 Drltfs Act as the normal secretion of the mammary I 

 glands of ,%3 cow. How far this is the interpretation 

 of the existing law on the subject is a question open 

 to opinion. Certainly, if this were more widely 

 recognised, many of the vexatious disputes which 

 the sanitary authorities too often experience in their 

 attempts to obtain convictions in the case of un- 

 doubtedly adulterated samples of milk would be 

 done away with. A satisfactory solution of the 

 difficulty would be effected by selling milk on the 

 basis of its analysis ; and this, there can be little 

 doubt, while accompanied by certain difficulties, will 

 be the method sooner or later 



