INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 27 



is attributed to a diiferent principle than that of its 

 fermenting quality, but an active ferment may also in- 

 crease the effect of the gastric juice." Dr. Flint adds : 

 " New cheese is a highly nutritious article, as is evident 

 from its composition." The long experience of English, 

 Scotch, and Irish labourers proves cheese to be a whole- 

 some as well as nutritious food. A small quantity of 

 cheese, with them, takes the place of a larger quantity 

 of meat, and enables them to endure such hard labour as 

 the American thinks he can only perform upon a generous 

 meat diet. In Germany farm labourers depend largely 

 upon the curd of milk after being skimmed for butter. 

 This curd is frequently used in a fresh state, and makes 

 an important part of the labourer's diet. It is related 

 of a certain Dane that he could carry a stone so heavy 

 that it required ten men to lift it on his shoulders : that 

 he performed such wonderful feats of strength upon a 

 diet consisting of large quantities of thick sour milk, tea,, 

 and coffee. His enormous strength must have been sus- 

 tained by the curd of the milk. This case refutes the 

 common error, that milk does not furnish a diet for 

 vigorous manhood. There are numerous cases in which 

 a milk diet has sustained the system under the most 

 exacting labour. The American Encyclopaedia says i 

 " The peasants of some parts of Switzerland, who sel- 

 dom or never taste anything but bread, cheese, and butter, 

 are a vigorous people. Our American women are not 

 such flesh-eaters as men, and with their love of sweet- 

 meats the nervous system becomes ill nourished. They 

 may almost be said to be made of starch and sugar. If 

 they would make cheese a more constant article of diet,, 

 and use more unbolted flour, with more open air exer- 

 cise, they would soon become the most healthful and 

 robust, women in the world." Cheese is less liable to 

 putrefactive change than flesh, and thus much less likely 

 to develop in the human system those scrofulous diseases 

 attributed to animal food. 



It is believed that we produce in the United Kingdom 

 about 126,000 tons of ripe cheese, and 29,285 tons of 



