552 



8Cieng:e. 



[Vol. IX., No. 227 



with the use of turnips, cabbage, etc., which 

 make the milk 'taste,' if fed in large quantities 

 or at indiscriminate times, but which may be fed 

 in limited qiiantities, and at certain times in re- 

 spect to the milking, without flavoring the milk 

 at all. I have often heard this matter discussed 

 among farmers and milkmen, and, similarly, I 

 think it very probable that some distillery swill 

 may be used, regulated as to the quantity, the 

 time of feeding, and the other food which goes 

 with it, without practically injuring the milk. 

 But because of the difficulties of supervising the 

 production of milk for cities, and of controlling 

 its saie, I would forbid, under heavy penalties, 

 the sale of all milk in cities ^.nd towns, produced 

 by swill-fed cows, whether much or little swill 

 was used. 



I have made many inquiries among physicians 

 on this matter, and I think the vast majority be- 

 lieve that swill-milk is not wholesome for chil- 

 dren, and that this unwholesomeness is not merely 

 negative, arising from its poverty in fat, sugar, or 

 total solids, but that it has positively injurious 

 qualities ; and that, too, is my own belief, 



[Henby Haktshorne, M.D., Philadelphia, Penn.] 



Dr. Bispham, a practitioner in the first ward, 

 Philadelphia, tells me that he knows of the use of 

 milk from cows fed with distillery swill, in fam- 

 ilies under his medical care ; and that he has seen 

 evidence that such milk is too stimulating, and 

 unwholesome for children. 



[W. Simon, Ph.D., Baltimore, Md.] 

 In the spring of 1882 I gave my attention to 

 the feeding of cattle with swill for a number of 

 weeks, visiting the stables belonging to distilleries 

 in and near Baltimore during feeding-time, and 

 drawing samples for analysis. The cattle which 

 came under my examination at the time were fed 

 with plenty of hay and swill only, and were in a 

 good healthy condition, notwithstanding that 

 some of the cows had not left the stable for sev- 

 eral months. Neither in quantity nor quality of 

 the milk could I find any abnormal conditions. 



[James Law, M.D., professor of veterinary science, Cornell 

 university.] 



Being from home, I cannot profess to answer 



your questions as to the effects of swill-feeding on 



milk as I could have done had I been beside 



my library. I have been accustomed to see 



brewers' and distillers' grains fed to milch-cows 



without any noticeable evil effect on the milk. 



If fresh, these are, in the main, grain robbed of 



much of its starch and some of its salts. Even 



when slightly acid from preservation in a closely 



packed condition, it has not seemed to affect the 



milk injuriously. It is difficult to see how the 



same material, ground into a fine farina, and 

 floating in a large amount of water, can be any 

 more injurious, further than as the excess of the 

 water must produce a relative diminution of the 

 solids in the milk. But swill is not always fed 

 in this pure and unchanged condition. As pre- 

 served for feeding-purposes, it is often found to 

 have undergone not an acid fermentation only, 

 but even a putrid one as well. In other cases it 

 is alleged that it contains chemical agents of a 

 more or less pernicious nature, that have been in- 

 troduced with the object of securing a more 

 abundant yield of alcohol from a given measure 

 of grain ; and in all such cases the milk cannot 

 fail to be injurious in exact ratio with the bane- 

 ful nature of the fermentation products, or of the 

 chemicals introduced by the brewer. The ques- 

 tion cannot, I think, be settled by a mere general 

 statement of the effects of swill-feeding, but it 

 must have reference to the condition and ingre- 

 dients of any particular specimen of swill fed. 

 I can easily understand two different observers ex- 

 perimenting at the samQ time, and reaching dia- 

 metrically opposite results, because due regard 

 has not been paid to the varying condition of 

 the swill as it was fed, and the different conditions 

 of life of the animals consuming it. 



[D. E. Salmon, M.D., chief of Bureau of animal industry, 

 department of agriculture, Washington, D.C.] 

 As I have not the exact data at hand which 

 would be needed to answer your questions prop- 

 erly, I prefer to write you a short letter on the 

 subject. In my investigations of animal diseases, 

 I have frequently had occasion to observe the 

 manner in which cows are stabled in sheds where 

 distillery refuse is fed, and I also have quite a 

 clear idea of the way in which the milk is han- 

 dled. In a general way I have watched the dis- 

 cussions of sanitarians in reference to the whole- 

 someness of milk produced in this way. In some 

 cases, at least, chemists have reported that milk 

 from cows fed upon swill was equally rich, and, 

 from chemical tests, was as good as, and even 

 better than, milk produced from cows fed upon 

 country pastures. It is extremely doubtful whether 

 such tests as these indicate in any degree the 

 wholesomeness of such milk. From the nature 

 of the food, stables where swill is fed are much 

 more difficult to keep clean, and the milk pro- 

 duced in them is contaminated with more filth 

 and foreign organic matter than ever should be 

 the case in properly kept milk-stables. This 

 would indicate that such milk would undergo 

 changes from the multiplication of microscopic 

 organisms more rapidly than other milk, and 

 that dangerous germs would be more apt to find 

 their way into it. Some sanitarians contend that 



