WHY cow's MILK? 61 



40.5°." By a very simple and rational method of 

 experiment Dr. Bell thus showed why, in spite of its 

 slightly tougher curd and larger percentage of fat, 

 goat's milk proved superior to cow's milk from the 

 standpoint of digestibility. 



In many parts of Switzerland and France it is 

 customary for babies to take their nourishment 

 directly from the goat's udder, just as they would 

 from their mothers' breasts.^" The udder and teats 

 of the goat are carefully cleaned by washing, and 

 then the child sucks the teats as other children do 

 their mothers' nipples. According to the British 

 Medical Journal, the results are in every way satis- 

 factory.^* Among the Italians who come to this 

 country in such large numbers goat's milk is very 

 highly esteemed as an infants' food, especially in 

 times of sickness.^^ Down amid the crowded tene- 

 ments of New York City, when a little Italian baby 

 is sick, weakened by diarrhoea and much vomiting, 

 the distracted mother will very often take the frail 

 sufferer in her arms across the ferry into New Jersey, 

 in quest of goat's milk, which she generally finds in 

 one of the many straggling Italian settlements on 

 the outskirts of near-by towns. In this connection it 

 is interesting to remember that among the ancient 

 Hebrews many curative properties were attributed to 

 the goat. Just as the blood of the male goat was 

 believed to be more like human blood than that of 



