II] OF MILK AND WOOL 23 



CHAPTER XI 



OF MILK AND WOOL 



1 Now, said Cossinius/ that we have finished what 

 we set ourselves to do, let us go. Yes, said I, 

 after you have added a word or two, as it was pre- 

 viously agreed, about the supplementary ^ products 

 from sheep — milk and wool to wit. Of all liquids 

 taken as food, milk is the most nutritious; first 

 sheep's milk, then that of goats. Mares' ^ milk is 

 the most strongly purgative; next in order comes 

 that of asses, then that of cows, and last that of 



2 goats. These different milks, however, present 

 certain differences, depending on the pasturage, the 

 nature of the animals, and the birth of the young 

 one; on the pasturage, for milk is especially nu- 

 tritious which is got from an animal that has been 

 fed on barley and straw, or, in general, on dry and 

 solid food, while that is most purgative which comes 

 from one that has fed on green fodder, especially if 



' It is obviously Cossinius who speaks. Twice later in this 

 chapter Varro interrupts him, § 5 and § 10. In § 11, Suscipit 

 Cossinius. 



'^ Extraordinario. Cf. ii, i, 28. 



' Equinum. It would seem from Aristotle (H. A., iii, 20) 

 that the thinner the milk the more purgative it is. The thinnest 

 milk is camel's— then comes mare's milk, then ass's, while 

 cow's is the '* thickest " of all. 



