The Food of the. People. 
117 
porp(^tral.O(]. llio .so-callod " milk" is so diluted, thrit, it is 
scarcely worthy of the name. The price for this substitute; is the 
same as that which the rich customer pays for real milk ; and, 
und(n- these circumstances, it is no matter of wonder that the 
poor of London are not fond of milk, nor very large customers 
of tlie milkman. 
Assuming the "barn gallon," by which the dairy farmer sells 
his milk, to be equal to two imperial gallons — though, in some 
places, the custom is to give 17 pints to the "barn gallon"— it 
will be seen that there is a very wide difference indeed, between 
the wholesale price at the farm and the retail price in London. 
The latter is never less than 4d. the imperial quart, which is at 
the rate of not less than 'Is. Sd. the barn gallon, without taking 
into account any dilution of the milk by water. 
The proportion of water to milk can be easily determined by a 
common lactometer, a simple instrument v/hich costs a shilling, 
and can be understood by a child. It is merely a small tube of 
glass, like a thermometer, with a bulb at the lower end. In this 
bulb is a little quicksilver, or other material, which is of the 
right weight, when placed in a bowl of milk, to sink the tube to 
the exact level of the " good milk " line. The police, or special 
inspectors of milk, ought to be empowered in London, as in 
France and Belgium, to test by such an instrument any milk on 
sale, in a dairy or in the streets, and to seize and take before a 
magistrate any sample found to be diluted ; and the magistrate 
ought to be empowered to inflict heavy and cumulative penalties 
upon all offenders. The farmer has a real and urgent interest in 
the prevention of frauds in the sale of an article which he 
produces.* 
The manipulation of milk, with a view to its keeping, is but 
little practised in England. The practice of " clotting," which 
is common in the West of England, is scarcely known elsewhere ; 
but it seems well worth while to consider whether it might not 
be extended with advantage. The importance of milk as an 
article of nutriment can scarcely be overstated in the interest of 
the public ; and the interest of the farmer appears to be as deeply 
involved in the adoption of some process by which the milk 
which he produces can be conveyed to a ready market, where it 
would fetch a high price, in a condition much less perishable 
than its natural condition, equally palatable and nutritious as 
* As the specific gravity of cream, as Avell as of water, is less than that of 
milk, it has been suggested that the lactometer might lead an observer to mistake 
an abundance of cream for the presence of water: but this is a mistake which 
may be possible in theory but is scarcely possible in practice. The instrument 
used by the French police costs about 2 francs in Paris. The writer bought an 
equally good lactometer for Is. at Messrs, Phillips, 180, Bisbopsgate Street 
Without, L'.C. 
