SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 230 



Analysis of Portion C. 

 Inorganic Matter. 



Phosphoric acid 48.63 



Sulphuric acid 1.80 



Chlorine... !!!"!!!!^!i!!!!!!]!!"^!!!;!^; ]]!!!! !!!!]"!!!!! oi^o 



Carbonic acid 5.06 



Potash 20.14 



Soda S.47 



Lime 6.12 



Magnesia 7.10 



Oxide of iron Traces 



Loss .26 



Mr. Simon says, in his note appended to the analysis, that " swill 

 is a highly nutritious form of food, and that he sees nothing in its 

 composition that could possibly work injury to cattle feeding 

 on it." 



The results obtained by Mr. Collier are ver}' similar to those fur- 

 nished by Professor Simon, but are even a little stronger in statement. 

 He compares swill with com and rye and other products, and shows 

 that it is richer in food-elements, and decidedly richer than ensilage, 

 which is so highly prized by certain cattle-feeders. In reply to in- 

 terrogatories, Mr. Collier expresses the belief that swill is a whole- 

 some and highly nutritious form of food, and can be given to cows 

 with great advantage. He, however, adds that much will depend 

 upon the amount given, the circumstances and surroundings, and 

 the proper combination with other aliments. 



The truth is, the whole matter in discussion hinges upon this last 

 point, and Mr. Collier has not made it any clearer by his statements, 

 however honestly made. It is to the physiologist, in my judgment, 

 and not to the analytical chemist, that we must look for a scientific 

 solution of the problem. Analytical chemistry serves but a feeble 

 purpose in solving many important questions. By it butter and 

 oleomargarine appear equally wholesome and nutritious ; and it 

 can detect but little difference in impurity between water-closet 

 matter, and sewage from which excrement is excluded. 



' Milk for Babes.' By E. M. NELSON, M.D. (St Louis Courier 

 of Medicine, May, 1883.) 



In regard to the feeding of the cows, there is almost as much 

 variation between different dairies as there is in regard to cleanli- 

 ness. Nearly all the city dairies make use of the products of the 

 breweries and distilleries as a considerable part of the feed of 

 their cows. So far as the malted grain is concerned, perhaps noth- 

 ing can be said in objection to its use as a part of the food. It is 

 recommended by the best writers as a valuable and economical 

 constituent of the food of milch-cows. The same cannot be said 

 of the hot distillery swill. The effect of this food has been found 

 by the best and most careful observers to be prejudicial to the 

 health of cows, and to produce a milk that is lacking in nutri- 

 tive quality as well as being specially liable to speedy change and 

 fermentation. Mr. Lake, who was for many years the largest 

 feeder of distillery swill in the city, asserted that cows fed on this 

 article invariably become diseased within a period of six months, 

 and the lungs show constantly the evidences of tubercular infiltra- 

 tion. Mr. Cabanne states, that, when he formeriy fed swill in his 

 own dairy, he butchered over one hundred and fifty cows, and 

 never found one in which there was not tuberculous disease of the 

 lungs. 



' Our Milk-Supply.' By W. K. Newton, M.D. {Fottrih Anmial 

 Report of New Jersey State Board of Health) 

 Swill-milk is rarely heard of now, but not many years ago it was 

 a fruitful cause of disease and death in children. Fearing that the 

 lessons of the past may be forgotten, we are constrained to mention 

 it as a possible cause of disease. Distillery swill, "if properly fed 

 in limited quantities, in combination with other and more bulky 

 food, may be a valuable article for the dairyman ; but if given, as it 

 too often is, without the addition of other kinds of food, it soon 

 affects the health and constitution of the animals fed on it. Where 

 this forms the principal food of milch-cows, the milk is of a poor 

 quality : it contains often less than one per cent of butter, and sel- 

 dom over one and three-tenths or one and one-half per cent, tis 



effect on the system of young children is therefore very destructive, 

 causing diseases of various kinds, and, if long continued, certain 

 death. The adulteration of pure milk from the healthy cow by 

 water, though dishonest and objectionable in the highest degree, is 

 far less iniquitous in its consequences than the nefarious traffic in 

 swill-milk, or milk produced from cows fed entirely on still-slops, 

 from which they so become diseased, after which the milk contains 

 a subtle poison, which is as difficult of detection, by any known 

 process of chemistry, as the miasma of an atmosphere tainted with 

 yellow-fever or cholera. The fact is sufficiently palpable, that no 

 pure and healthy milk can be produced by an unhealthy and dis- 

 eased animal, and that no animal can long remain healthy that is fed 

 on an unnatural food, and treated in the manner too common 

 around the distilleries of many large cities." (C. L. Flint, pp. 144, 

 208, 216.) 



Where swill-milk was sold in New York a few years ago, " it was 

 found different in alimentary character from that produced by cows 

 that were fed on grass, hay, or grain. It was not so well digested 

 in the stomach, nor had it the nutritive power to create flesh and 

 sustain strength. The children lost flesh, and failed to gain it. 

 Their skins were pallid, sometimes discolored and corrugated. Their 

 countenances had the appearance of old age, rather than the bright 

 and lively bloom of childhood. They suffered from diarrhoea and 

 dysentery and great debility, and many died." {farvis.) 



Fortunately, no swill-milk is sold in this State at the present time, 

 but it is well for health officers to be on the lookout for it. The 

 sale of it is, in this State, considered a misdemeanor, punishable by 

 a fine of fifty dollars and imprisonment for thirty days. The laws 

 of Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and other States also forbid 

 its sale. 



'Report of Committee on City Milk.' By S. R. PERCY, M.D. 

 {Tra7isactio7is New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. II. 

 Part IV., 1859.) 



This report, which occupies fifty-three pages of the transactions, 

 is the fullest statement of facts in connection with distillery swill 

 and milk which we have seen. In June, 1858, the New York board 

 of health adopted a resolution that the Academy of Medicine be 

 requested to lay before the board such facts and evidence as they 

 may have in relation to the milk furnished to the citizens of New 

 York. The academy appointed a committee of five of its mem- 

 bers, including Drs. B. Fordyce Barker and S. Ratton Percy, and in 

 March of the following year presented its report. The greater part 

 of the labors of the committee was performed by Dr. Percy, and 

 his report is the most valuable. It includes chemical analyses, 

 which we have already given under that head, microscopic examina- 

 tions and drawings, and cases of disease resulting from the use of 

 distillery milk. Associated with Dr. Percy in his investigations was 

 Mr. Solon Robinson, who had been long conversant with the rais- 

 ing and fattening of cattle, and Mr. Thomas Devoe, who had been 

 long and extensiVely engaged in the slaughtering of cattle, and in 

 supplying the markets with wholesome beef. Mr. Robinson accom- 

 panied the committee to the distillery stables, and, as the result of 

 his observations, said, " From my personal experience in feeding 

 cows with various agricultural products, and in producing milk and 

 butter, I am well satisfied that cows fed as described, and kept in 

 such an atmosphere as I could not remain in ten minutes without 

 feeling severe sickness, must produce poisoned milk. And I do not 

 consider the beef any more fit for human food than the milk ; not 

 so much on account of the bad food, as the poisonous atmosphere 

 in which the poor brutes are confined. I would no sooner touch 

 this swill-milk than I would use milk from the most ' milk-sick ' 

 region of Illinois." Mr. Devoe, in speaking of the quality of beef 

 furnished by animals fed on distillery swill, says, " I have slaugh- 

 tered, and seen slaughtered, the various kinds of animals that have 

 been fed, wholly or partially, on this swill, which appears to have 

 produced almost as many varieties of beef, and I think I may be 

 better understood by placing them under three general heads ; viz., 

 first-class, second-class, and third-class. The first-class beef, no 

 doubt, is produced from thrifty steers, fed in some of the distilleries 

 in the northern counties of New York, where only a small portion, 

 or the liquid portion, of the food, is swill ; the rest being of meal, 

 roots, hay, and grass : and, when brought to our markets in a fat. 



