58 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



its economic qualities, but it is doubtful whether, 

 all things considered, there is a more economical 

 domestic animal anywhere. 



There are several reasons why goat's milk is superior 

 to cow's milk as a substitute for breast milk in infant 

 feeding. In the first place, while the cow is particu- 

 larly subject to a specially virulent form of tuber- 

 culosis, which dread disease it is, as we shall see later, 

 capable of acquiring from man and of transmitting 

 to man in its milk, through the infection of the di- 

 gestive tract, the goat is practically * immune from 

 the disease. Professor Nocard has observed that 

 of 130,000 goats and kids brought to the slaughter- 

 houses of Paris the meat inspectors failed to find 

 a single one suffering from tuberculosis and requir- 

 ing condemnation." The testimony upon this point 

 is overwhelming, and if there were no other ad- 

 vantage in goat's milk, this immunity from the 

 disease which scourges mankind ought to make it 

 popular, providing that its milk proved equally 

 as nutritious and digestible as cow's milk. If we 

 were choosing a foster-mother or wet-nurse for an 



* I say " practically immune " in view of the fact that goats 

 have been successfully inoculated with bovine tubercle bacilli 

 by Arloing, and with both bovine and human tubercle bacilli by 

 De Jong. Nevertheless, instances of successful inoculation 

 with either variety are so rare as to call attention to the strik- 

 ing degree of immunity enjoyed by the goat. See " Some 

 Observations on the Tuberculosis of Animals," by D. E. Salmon, 

 D.V.M., Maryland Medical Journal, February, 1904. 



