Milk. 161 



Under this name are included sugar, starch and similar 

 hodies. 



4. Salts, chiefly phosphates, sulphates and chlorides of 

 potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium andiron. 



5. Water. 



The following table gives the average composition of the 

 principal kinds of food : — 



Albu- Car- 

 Water. Solids, min- Fat. bohy- Salts, 

 oids. drates. 



Meat 75 25 18 6 .. 1 



Fowl 75 25 21 3 .. 1 



Fish 78 22 18 3 .. 1 



Bread 40 60 8 3 48 1 



Potatoes 75 25 2 . . 22 1 



Milk 87 13 4 4 4 1 



Meat is rich in albuminoids, poor in carbohydrates. Bread 

 and potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and poor in albu- 

 minoids. It follows from the table given above that a pint 

 and a half of milk is about equal in nutritive value to half a 

 pound of meat and half a pound of potatoes — not quite so 

 rich in albuminoids, but a good deal richer in fat. In milk, 

 too, the food constituents are in a liquid form, which renders 

 them particularly easy of digestion and assimilation, a point 

 of vital importance in the case of the infant and the invalid 



This brings us to the subject of milk adulteration. There 

 is no article of food which it is more essential to the public 

 welfare to obtain pure than milk ; none which is more 

 easily adulterated, none which has been adulterated more 

 extensively and more shamelessly. 



When the public analysts of Canada published their first 

 report in 18*16, two-thirds of the samples analysed were 

 reported as adulterated. In 1882, this number was i educed 

 to less than one-fifth. This is gratifying, but it is bad 

 enough still. 



Strange stories used to be told of the substances employed 

 to adulterate milk. It was popularly believed, for example, 

 that calves' brains were largely used for this purpose. 

 Chalk, also, was popularly credited with being a common 

 adulterant. All these stories are fables. Milk is adulterated 



