Healthfulness of Skimmed Milk. 89 
cows is concerned, official inspection of the herds 
is undoubtedly a greater safeguard than dependence 
upon pasteurization or sterilization; and so far as 
the liability of transmission of other diseases is con- 
cerned, the milkman who is eareless in regard to 
the cleansing of his utensils, would quite as likely be 
careless in the pasteurization or sterilization process, 
so that reliability of the milkman is an important 
factor in the purity of the milk supply, no matter 
what other precautions are taken. 
Quality of milk for consumption.—The fat is the 
most variable and the most valuable constituent of 
the milk, so that milk is ordinarily considered to be 
of value for human food in proportion to the amount 
of fat it contains, but where it is to be used as 
a food in large quantities, the fat may frequently 
be present in too large quantities for the digestion 
of many persons. Milk containing about 4 per 
cent of fat is probably an ideal food for the gen- 
eral mass of human beings. If there is above 5 
per cent of fat the other solids are somewhat out 
of proportion, and many are likely to have trouble 
with their digestion from using large amounts of 
such milk. On the other hand, if there is less 
than 3 per cent of fat, the casein and other solids 
are in too great proportion to the fat, and are less 
readily digested. The question of the healthfulness 
of milk from which a large part of the fat has been 
removed is one frequently discussed. The removal of 
the fat does not thereby in any way injure the other 
solids; they are still there, and still as useful for 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
