158 
The Phosphates of Milk. 
“ But in these days of keen competition, when the good and cheap 
land in Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, South America, the 
United States, and Canada, is brought into direct rivalry with your 
farms by means of large, quick, and powerful steamships, which 
convey the produce of these countries to our great seaports almost 
as (cheaply as your products can be conveyed from here to York- 
shire and London, it behoves farmers and wool-growers to be on 
their mettle, and to see that their products are turned out in first- 
class condition, so that they will find as ready a market as those of 
their colonial brethren.” 
J. E. Hargreaves. 
THE PHOSPHATES OF MILK. 
One of the greatest authorities on the chemistry of dairy products, 
M. Duclaux, discusses the above subject in the volume for 1892 of the 
Annates de VInstitut Pasteur. The importance in nutrition of the 
mineral matter of milk lies in the fact that it is from this portion 
that the osseous or bony system of the young animal is produced. 
Duclaux, in alluding to this importance, mentions the fact, ascer- 
tained by Bunge by chemical analysis, that the mineral matter of 
a puppy, incinerated entire, has almost the same composition as that 
of the milk of the bitch. 
The minerals of milk are also known to exercise considerable 
influence on the properties of the casein, its coagulation, digestibility, 
texture, &c. Hammersten’s theory in connection with this matter, 
alluded to in the article on the Fermentations of Milk, which appeared 
in the last number of the Journal (Yol. III., 3rd Series, Part IY., 1892, 
pp. 796-808), is that casein, under the influence of rennet, is resolved 
into two albuminoids, one of which, present in the greater quantity, 
is insoluble in such a solution of phospate of lime as milk is assumed 
to be, and is therefore precipitated as “ curd ; ” the other, present 
only in small quantity, remains in solution as the albuminoid of whey. 
The view of MM. Arthur and Pages is similar, except that they 
suppose the lime compounds to take an active part in precipitating 
the casein (called by them “ caseinogen ”), by combining therewith 
to form insoluble or precipitated casein or curd. 
The facts published by M. Duclaux in 1883 are in opposition to 
the above views. He finds that when milk coagulated by rennet 
is filtered through biscuit-porcelain, the clear liquid which passes 
through contains no greater amount of soluble albuminoid than the 
clear liquid of fresh milk after similar filtration, which seems to 
prove that no soluble albuminoid is formed during the curdling 
process. Further, he denies that phosphate of lime takes any 
active part in the curdling. The particles of this salt are, according 
to him, not in solution at all, but in simple suspension in the milk, 
from which they may be separated by settlement. They are thus 
carried down by the precipitated curd by mechanical entanglement, 
