166 Canadian Record of Science.' 



solids not fat of a milk are over 8 per cent., we cannot 

 certify that the milk is not genuine. Indeed in the case of 

 the milk of individual cows the solids not fat may be even 

 lower than this. But the average of the milk of our 1,600 

 cows was 8-62 percent, solids not fat, and many of the 

 samples gave over 9 per cent, of solids not fat. If, then, 

 we pass all milks in which the non-fatty solids are over 

 8 per cent., we give dishonest dealers the opportunity to 

 let their milks down to this standard. Indeed we invite 

 adulteration if done with judgment and in moderation. 



With good rich milk a gallon of water may be added to 

 every nine gallons of milk, and still analysis will not prove, 

 except as a matter of probability, that the milk is not 

 genuine. Similarly half the cream may be removed from 

 a milk like some of the Halifax samples without lower- 

 ing the percentage of fat below that found in some of the 

 samples of mixed cow's milk that we obtained ourselves. 



Except then in very flagrant case?, the penalties of the 

 Adulteration Act, as it stands at present, are but empty 

 threats. What then, I repeat, can we do ? I answer, 

 there are two ways in which we can check this evil. 



The first is publicity. If A is only judicious in his 

 adulteration and not too much of a glutton in his use of 

 the tap, we cannot certify that his milk is not genuine, 

 but we can say that it is wretched stuff, and very much 

 inferior to the average, and in particular to that of his 

 rival B. And A doesn't like this. He fears, and with 

 good reason, that his customers will forsake him for the 

 man who gives better milk, and the chances are he will 

 mend his ways. 



This is what we have been doing. So far there has been 

 very little prosecution under the Act, and what there has 

 has not been very successful. The influence we have exert- 

 ed has been almost exclusively that which comes from pub- 

 lishing our results. In 187b*, when the Act came into 

 operation, we found two-thirds of the samples of milk 

 which we analyzed adulterated. In 1882 there were only 

 one-fifth. Is it too much to ascribe this improvement to 



