MILK INSPECTION. 
981 
age solids not fat is 8.54. Of 272 samples, 134 or 49.26 per cent. 
1 contain less than 3 per cent, of fat, and 181, 66.34 per cent., 
contain less than 12 per cent, of total solids. Of the 272 sam¬ 
ples sold as whole milk 90, or 33.c>9per cent., maybe considered 
as legal according to the city ordinances ; and 235, or 86.4 per 
cent., are below the averages of the American analyses of whole 
milk. In other words, two-thirds of the milk sold was adulter¬ 
ated or below the low requirements of the city.” 
In relation to the question, “ Does milk inspection lessen 
the percentage of adulteration,” the experience of the Philadel¬ 
phia authorities may be cited. There it was found that the 
adulterated milk in 1892 was 11.15 P er cent. In 1897, five 
years later, this percentage was reduced by 8.77, and the in¬ 
spector discovered only 2.38 per cent, of adulterated milk. 
COMPOSITION OF MILK. 
The component parts of milk consist of six principal ingre¬ 
dients : viz., water, fat, casein, albumen, milk-sugar and ash. 
Other compounds are present, but in such minute quantities 
that they are of no practical significance. Clean, normal milk 
contains about 87 per cent, of water, 4 per cent, of fat, 3 f per 
cent, of casein and albumen, 5 per cent, of milk-sugar, and .7 
of one per cent, of mineral salts. These proportions vary 
somewhat from different causes, but the figures given are the 
average of innumerable analyses. The chief constituents, fat 
and water, vary within such limits that certain States have 
established legal standards for milk somewhat under the pro¬ 
portions given below, which it is considered adulterated. 
Wherever milk is sold there should be a legal standard for 
milk law, because “experience has shown that it does protect 
the consumer by preventing the sale of impure, adulterated 
milk.” It is claimed by a competent authority u that a fair 
average quality of milk contains 13 to 13.50 per cent, of total 
solids, and from 4*00 to 4*50 per cent, of fat, and people are en¬ 
titled to this kind of milk.” The average per cent, of total 
solids is 12.30 in the legal standard for milk law of seventeen 
(17) states having such a law. 
