Milk.—Milk is, of course, the natural food of man for the first year or so of his life. This is no reason, however, for supposing that man can continue to eat, or rather drink, milk, for the rest of his life with impunity—especially when this milk comes from the cow. Milk as an article of diet has been highly praised by many authorities. For example, in the pamphlet issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we read:
“Milk is peculiarly adapted for use as a food by man for several reasons. It contains all the four classes of nutriments—protein, fats, carbohydrates and mineral matter—in more nearly the proper proportion to serve as a complete food than any other food material, although no one substance can furnish a complete food for an adult.”
While this may be true, the differences that are noted between human milk and cow’s milk are highly important ones. It is to be remembered, in this connection, that the blood and chemical composition of the calf’s body are different from those of man; and its natural food—milk—must consequently be different, for that reason. The chemical composition of cow’s milk is therefore not suited exactly for the human being, and, in order to render it more nearly ideal in composition, various other ingredients have to be mixed with it, in order to make it more nearly resemble the milk of the human species.
Mr Otto Carqué, writing in his “Folly of Meat Eating,” said:
“Milk is a nutritious food which is best suited for the new-born mammal. Only the infant’s digestive apparatus is adapted for the proper digestion of milk; his salivary glands are not yet developed and his alimentary canal is almost a straight tube, quite different from that of the adult. There is a little bulge in the tube, from which the stomach gradually develops, and during this time very little gastric juice is formed. When milk enters the stomach of an infant it goes easily through and down into the intestines where it can be digested. In the stomach of the adult, which is of different shape and secretes more acid gastric juice, milk forms large, tough curds which are not easily digested.
”Cow’s milk is a splendid food for calves, but it cannot be recommended very well for human beings. The natural food-supply of the infant—mother’s milk—forms very small, soft curds which are easily broken up and digested. They are entirely different from the curds formed by cow’s milk which are tough and only adapted to the four-stomach digestive apparatus of the calf. An exclusive diet of milk may often increase the weight of a person, but this is due to its large percentage of water, while it does not contain enough organic salt for the adult who needs a larger percentage of iron, sulphur and silicon in his food.
“Cow’s milk is sometimes diluted with water and sweetened with refined sugar to serve as food for children. Warning cannot be sounded often enough against this injurious practice of diminishing the percentage of organic salts in the milk, a circumstance which at once interferes with the proper oxidation and circulation of the blood, giving rise to a larger number of infantile diseases. Refined sugar is entirely deficient in mineral matter and therefore always injurious to health.”
But there is a far greater danger in milk than any we have so far considered. I refer to the unhealthy condition of cows. Bovine tuberculosis and other diseases are very prevalent among cows of all sorts—far more so than is usually believed. E. F. Brush, M.D., in his book, “Human and Bovine Tuberculosis,” says:
“My occupation brings me into close contact with dairy cattle, and I have therefore been compelled to devote my attention to the diseases afflicting dairy stock, and that there is a large number of dairy cows afflicted with tuberculosis I can affirm; that there has never been any attempt to exterminate the disease is a fact of which I am also cognisant.... I have been told by inspectors of the Bureau of Animal Industry that a much larger percentage of our cows are affected than is the case in England. Indeed, among the thoroughbred Jerseys in the Northern states, twenty per cent. are affected, as I have been told by Professor R. A. McLean, chief of this district from the bureau.”