May 13, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



455 



is not obstructed by land, and therefore spreads 

 more readily, leaving open water for the ships to 

 pass through. Whalers and sealers are carrying 

 on a successful hunt in the Antarctic Ocean, and 

 undoubtedly an expedition would open new 

 grounds to them. It is to be hoped that the in- 

 terest in antarctic exploration which manifests 

 itself in all parts of the world will lead to a new 

 period of discoveries in the ice-bound seas of the 

 south pole. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Distillery milk. 



The raid made by the officers of the New York 

 board of health, on the cow-owners who bring 

 milk to the city from animals fed on distillery 

 swill, has awakened a new interest in this subject, 

 w^hich Science has discussed for the past two 

 weeks. 



For the benefit of those who are not informed, 

 it may be well to explain what distillery swill is, 

 and why it is regarded as objectionable food for 

 milch-cows. In the manufacture of whiskey from 

 rye, wheat, or Indian-corn, the ground grain, to- 

 gether with malt, is placed in a tub with hot 

 water. The diastase present in the malt, acting 

 as a ferment on the starch of the grain, changes 

 it into glucose. After cooling, yeast is added, 

 and fermentation takes place, resulting in the 

 conversion of the glucose into alcohol and car- 

 bonic acid. The contents of the tub are then 

 placed in a still and the alcohol is distilled off. 

 The refuse is distillery waste or swill. In the 

 above process, most of the starch has been changed 

 into glucose. The swill contains a small amount 

 of starch, together with cellulose, gluten, and 

 some dextrine. The quantity of water in swill is 

 very large, varying from seventy-five to ninety- 

 five per cent. 



It will be seen from the above statement, that, 

 in order to get a sufficient amount of nutriment, 

 a cow feeding on distillery swill must take into 

 the stomach a very large amount of this waste, 

 so large a proportion being water, and that in so 

 doing the amount of carbohydrates taken is entirely 

 inadequate to the demands of the system ; and 

 this want must, of necessity, result in a deteriora- 

 tion of the animal's health, and indirectly of the 

 milk which it produces. It is an unnatural food 

 for cows, as is shown by their dislike of it when 

 first it is given them. In fact, in order to make 

 them eat it, they must first be starved. Hassal 

 quotes Harley as saying that '• brewers' and dis- 

 tillers' grains and distillers' waste make the cattle 

 ' grain-sick,' as it is termed, and prove injurious 

 to the stomach of an animal. It has been ascer- 



tained, that, if cows are fed upon these grains, etc., 

 their constitutions become quickly destroyed." 



The effect of taking so large a quantity of fluid 

 by the animal is to increase the quantity of the 

 milk-secretion and at the same time to cause 

 diarrhoea. We have stated that the quality of 

 the milk produced from cows fed on distillery 

 swill is very inferior. In support of this state- 

 ment, we quote some analyses made by Dr. E. H. 

 Bartley, chief chemist of the Brooklyn board of 

 health. In a report made by him he says, " The 

 effect upon the composition of the milk, of feed- 

 ing cows on distillery or vinegar swill, is shown 

 by the following analysis of three samples of 

 swill-milk recently made by me, as compared with 

 normal milk of cows fed on ordinary food : — 



It will be seen from these analyses that the fat 

 and sugar are both deficient in the milk of the 

 cow^ fed on distillery swill, while the caseine is in- 

 creased. This is just what would be expected 

 from the character of the food. When it is re- 

 membered that human milk contains more sugar 

 and fat than normal cow's-milk and much less 

 caseine, we can readily understand what the effect 

 of such milk must be upon small children fed 

 upon it. The amount of caseine being great, the 

 curd of the milk is increased and the digestion 

 made more difficult. When such milk is rendered 

 slightly acid, or is allowed to coagulate spontane- 

 ously, a marked difference is noticed in the char- 

 acter of the curd formed, from that produced in 

 normal milk. In the former the curd is tough 

 and hard, and shakes to pieces with greater diffi- 

 culty ; so much so, that I have been able in a few 

 cases to identify swill-milk by this property of the 

 curd. In order to make such a milk agree in 

 composition, even roughly, with human milk, one 

 and one-half quarts of water must be added to 

 one quart of milk, and then cream and sugar 

 added to supply these ingredients ; for, after the 

 water has been added to dilute the caseine, the 

 mixture would contain about one-fifth the neces- 

 sary quantity of sugar, and about one-fourth the 



