Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

Milk promiscuously mixed from a group of apparently healthy cows is preferable to that of one cow, and for several reasons; the honesty of dairymen is doubtful, for they will not take the extra trouble to keep the milk of one cow apart when the cows are being milked; again tuberculosis or consumption in all its stages is a common disease among cattle, and quite often a milch cow has tuberculosis when she seems healthy. If a child should subsist on the milk from a tuberculous cow, serious consequences would undoubtedly ensue, but if this milk had been mixed with that of thirty or forty healthy cows, the danger of infection would be correspondingly lessened.

Cow’s milk should average 12 per cent. of cream; if it contain less than 8 per cent., it is probable that the milk is watered or that it was skimmed. A cream gauge is a cylindrical glass vessel about one and a half inches in diameter and eight inches high, with a capacity of 12 fluid ounces. This tubular measure is graduated so as to make it possible to read off from the top downwards 1, 2, 3, etc., parts or drams of cream which gradually rises to the surface. This glass is filled with the suspected specimen of milk up to the highest mark and set aside for 24 hours, at an ordinary temperature; at the expiration of that time the quantity of cream which rose to the surface of the milk is read off, and in this manner it is easy to see the proportion of cream to the entire bulk of milk tested. Above it was stated that 12 per cent. is an average for good milk, and 14 per cent. is extra good, while 8 per cent. is the lowest that is permissible. If the percentage falls below 8 per cent. it is a sign that the milk has been skimmed, and if the density or specific gravity is below 27 degrees, then it is to be presumed that the milk has also been watered, for sometimes the milk is both skimmed and watered.

The density or specific gravity of milk gives an approximate idea of the quantity of solid matter a given specimen submitted for examination contains, as compared with pure water. The lactometer or galactometer is a kind of hydrometer, but specially graduated to readily read off the density which pure milk should have. Pure milk at a temperature of 55 to 60 degrees should have a specific gravity varying between 27 and 33 degrees and if the sample falls below 27 degrees, it is to be presumed that water has been added. The density of diluted milk is sometimes maintained by boiled starch water; this can be detected by adding a few drops of tincture of iodine, which changes the starch into a beautiful violet blue, also giving the adulterated milk a similar tint.

It must always be remembered that while milk presents itself in a liquid form it becomes a semi-solid in the stomach in the ordinary process of digestion; this change is accomplished by the action of the gastric ferment, curdling the milk. Milk is not a diluent for solid foods and it should never be drank as a substitute for water when other solid food has been eaten. The practice of eating a regular meal of meat and vegetables and drinking milk at the same time invariably overloads the stomach, and if it does not injure the digestion immediately it is sure to do so in time; it also furnishes an oversupply of nitrogenous food, developing an excess of lithates or uric acid, and this burdens the liver and kidneys. If a person is fond of milk it is most excellent as a principal article of diet at a meal, and indeed nothing is better than a bowl of well-prepared mush or a few slices of bread with a pint of fresh milk for either breakfast or supper.

Boiled milk has considerable healing and binding virtues; it may be thickened with a teaspoonful of wheat flour to the pint, and taken quite warm; as a household remedy, it is one of the most valuable in ordinary cases of diarrhœa, but no other food should be taken until the cure is effected.

The milk cure is a well-established and recognized expedient for the relief and cure of a certain class of patients, and as the success of the regimen depends upon an intelligent employment of the fluid, it becomes necessary to enter somewhat into the detail of its administration.

The milk-shake, that is milk shaken in a tumbler or beaten with an eggbeater for several minutes is frequently borne by persons who cannot digest milk which has not been so treated; then again, a teaspoonful of mush or gruel added to a tumblerful of milk and thoroughly beaten, divides the curd mechanically when it forms in the stomach, and so makes the milk much more soluble by the gastric juice.

Milk should never be drank cold, but at a temperature of about 100° F., which is about as warm as it comes from the cow, for cold delays the curdling and hence the digestion of the milk, and gives it time to develop acid or lactic fermentation in the stomach, and this may cause indigestion; a pinch of salt should be added to milk, it assists in its digestion. There must be certain periods at which to take milk, allowing a definite interval for the milk to digest; taking milk in mouthfuls, for instance as a drink instead of water is wrong, for this will ferment and occasion indigestion. The proper length to intervene between each meal of milk is four hours; breakfast 8 o’clock, dinner at 12 o’clock, lunch at 4 and supper at 8 o’clock; if the patient is considerably exhausted, the time between 8 o’clock in the evening and the same hour in the morning may be too long, and if the patient is awake, a meal should be given at midnight.

The quantity of milk which may be taken for one meal is of great importance, for there is the same danger of taking too much of this food as of any other. The average quantity to begin with must not exceed half a pint, and when the appetite is capricious one-fourth of a pint is sufficient. It is now fully established that a grown person can be fairly well nourished for quite a while on one quart of milk in the twenty-four hours.