June 10, 1887.] 



SCIENCE, 



-549 



for milch-cows, some believing that milk from 

 animals so fed is not only of poor quality, but ac- 

 tually detrimental to health, and even poisonous 

 to young children, while others regard such milk 

 as pimply inferior in quality but not harmful ; and 

 inasmuch as the matter is a vital one to the thou- 

 sands of children in our large cities who depend 

 upon milk as their sole sustenance, — Science has 

 deemed it of sufficient public interest to endeavor 

 to obtain and put on record all the facts which 

 bear on the question, and also the opinions of 

 those whose experience and observation have been 

 such as to enable them to express intelligent opin- 

 ions on the subject. With this end in view, the 

 accompanying questions are sent you, with the 

 request that you will answer them at your early 

 convenience : 



1. What opportunities have you had for observ- 

 ing the effect of feeding distillery swill to milch- 

 cows? 



2. Please state any facts within your knowl- 

 edge which will help to determine its effect on 

 the milk. 



3. What references can you give to any re- 

 corded facts in published or unpublished reports 

 bearing on this subject? 



4. What analyses can you give of milk obtained 

 from cows so fed ? 



5. What is your opinion as to the wholesome- 

 ness of distillery swill as food for cows ? 



6. Are there any laws or ordinances in your 

 city and state which bear on the question ? If so, 

 please send copies thereof, or, if this is not con- 

 venient, a reference to them. 



To this letter many answers have been received. 

 Some of these are from those who state that they 

 have never had any experience with the use of 

 distillery swill or its effects on the milk, while 

 others give the results of the feeding of brewery 

 grains, evidently confounduag them with distillery 

 waste, — a subject of great interest, but which is 

 not within the scope of our present inquiry. Still 

 other responses are from those who have had op- 

 portunities of investigating the subject and have 

 availed themselves of them, and whose testimony 

 is therefore of great value. In addition to this, 

 letters have been received from physicians and 

 others, who, while having had no practical ex- 

 perience with the article of food in question, are 

 still competent to speak on the subject from their 

 general knowledge. It is our purpose to present 

 this testimony so far as it bears on the matter in 

 hand, and invite criticism from our readers. It 

 may be stated, that, from the information which 

 has come to us, we are justified in assuming that 

 distillery swill is at the present time being fed to 



milch-cows in the following places : Baltimore, 

 Md. ; Blissville, N.Y. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Louisville, 

 Ky. ; Peoria, 111. ; Philadelphia, Penn. ; St. Paul, 

 Minn. ; and Toronto, Can. ; and up to 1885, in 

 Chicago, 111. We do not suppose that these in- 

 clude all the places in which this food is used, but 

 no others have been reported. If any of our 

 readers know of other localities, they will confer 

 a favor by sending the information. The first 

 two questions propounded in the circular letter 

 sent out were as follows : 1'', What opportunities 

 have you had for observing the effect of feeding 

 distillery swill to milch-cows ? and, 3°, Please state 

 any facts within your knowledge which will help 

 to determine its effect on the milk. 



To these the following replies were received : — 

 [J. L. Hamilton, M.D., Peoria, 111.] 



I have practised medicine in Peoria, III., for 

 over thirty years, — a place where more still-slop 

 is manufactured than in any other place in the 

 world, I suppose. For many years most of our 

 dairies fed entirely on swill-slop. The effect on 

 children given only this kind of milk was very 

 noticeable ; and when they got sick (as almost all 

 of them did during the summer months), they 

 nearly all died, unless the food was changed. As 

 health officer, a few years ago, at a time when 

 our city was mostly supplied with swill-milk, I 

 visited most of the dairies, and learned the fol- 

 lowing facts : the calves of cows fed only on 

 swill-feed would live only a short time if allowed 

 only their mothers' milk ; that a cow brought to the 

 dairy while with calf invariably lost it, if fed on 

 the slop alone ; that cows kept in the dairy and 

 fed only slop would become diseased by the sec- 

 ond year, with a skin-disease (large scabs would 

 appear all over them). Some of the cows I ex- 

 amined, and found in this condition ; and the 

 dairymen said these cows would soon die if kept 

 in more than two years. 



[E. M. COLBUEN, M.D., also of Peoria, 111.] 



I regret that I am unable to give you any re- 

 liable information, from the fact that I have never 

 paid any particular attention to the subject. 

 Peoria has about forty-five thousand inhabitants, 

 is considered a healthy locality, and has probably 

 the largest distilling interest in the United States, 

 Nineteen-twentieths, at least, of our citizens re- 

 ceive their milk-supply from dairies situated from 

 two to five miles in the country, and these all have 

 good bluegrass pastures for their milch-cows. I 

 think (though they deny it) that they all use slops, 

 though only as an auxiliary to other substantial 

 food. The proportion of slops used is so small 

 that the subject has never been investigated here 

 from a sanitary point of view. I have consulted 



