G. W. Wigner

“ There is probably no more curious illustration in the whole of our English commerce of the way in which a trade may go on increasing with the increase of the population, or even at a greater rate than the increase, than the milk trade ”

“ There are milkmen of various kinds in London, some of them of the highest integrity, from whom unquestionably pure milk can be procured at any time, and at a fair price; but it would be absurd to shut our eyes to the fact, that there are in London hundreds and even thousands of men, whose sole qualification for the trade consists in their ability to undersell their neighbours by watering their milk. ”

“ But it is even more than this: milk may be regarded as a model food, and as a complete food. It is a model food because it is nature’s own food, designed for the sustenance of the young of animals, and, as such, it contains and furnishes all the nutritive properties in due proportion required by a growing animal. ”

“ Indeed, with the exception of a small amount of albumen and Lacto Protein, all the nitrogen of milk exists in the form of caseine. Caseine forms the basis of our cheeses of every kind, except the real cream cheese. It will therefore scarcely surprise you to hear that it is highly nutritious. We all know how hardworking men live, to a very great extent, upon cheese with a quantity of bread, and not only do they thrive on the food, but perform an amount of physical work which most of us in this room would be quite incapable of undertaking. ”

“ Fat is the most variable and probably the most important of the ingredients of milk. It certainly is the most important from a dairy farmer’s point of view, because if the milk contains but little fat, he can procure but a smal proportion of cream and make but little butter from it. From a dietetic point of view also, it is, I say, the most important, or most important but one, of milk constituents. The butter fat is a peculiar one, differing in many respects from all the vegetable fats with which we are acquainted, and differing also to a considerable extent from other animal fats. ”

“ There is a good deal yet to be done in investigating the chemistry of sugar of milk, and it appears very probable that at some future time, further investigation may show that in reality what we look upon as a simple sugar, consists of different substances mixed together in proportions which are at present unknown. Sugar of milk is important in another way, as it forms the great point of difference between human milk and cow’s milk.
Human milk contains a larger proportion of sugar than cow’s milk, and less fat, caseine, albumen, and ash. ”

“ There is a good deal of difference, however, in the actual incidence of the milk rate as distinct from the water rate; because the poor, who have but little money to spare, are practically untouched by the water rate, their proportion of the landlord’s tax being almost too small for consideration, while, on the other hand, they are among the largest consumers of milk, and, unfortunately, from the very necessity of their purchases being small, say 1⁄4d. worths, or 1⁄2d. worths, they buy from the worst vendors, and, without doubt, succeed in procuring the most heavily adulterated milk. ”

“ From pretty careful enquiry, it appears that the consumption of milk among the middle classes of London is something like io gallons per head per year; but there are a large proportion of the poor to whom the cost of milk is serious, and there are a large proportion of the rich to whom, I am afraid, milk is less palatable than it should be; and therefore it would be a very moderate estimate to say that, on the average, 31⁄2 gallons per head per year is consumed by the entire population, or say, 11⁄2 ounces per head per day. ”

“ Water, of course, strictly speaking has no real dietetic value, and yet without water milk itself would be useless as food, because it is essential that the valuable food ingredients of which we have already been speaking should be dissolved or emulsified, so as to be in a suitable form capable of easy digestion, in fact so that the stomach can easily assimilate them. ”

“ The food of man, in fact, of children also, most commonly consists of a compound of at least two or more animal or vegetable substances, the combination of which affords the various elements necessary to meet all the demands of animal life, and there is no other food in use which contains in one article all the essential constituents of food excepting milk. ”

“ Milk consumers have, however, become so habituated to use the poor watered and skimmed milk which is supplied by these tradesmen, that the loss which they incur from day to day is not appreciated; and although their infants are deprived of the food which they require, the result shows rather an increase in the bills of mortality than an improvement in the character of the milk supply. ”

“ After this statement of what is actually being done at the present time in reference to the sale of impure milk, it will surprise no one if I say that I think further legislation is imperatively needed, not only to enforce the adoption of a somewhat more rigid standard, but to increase the efficiency of the supervision at present exercised over the milk supply; a very much larger number of samples should be examined, so that purchasers may procure something like a genuine article instead of an adulterated one. ”

“ Adults, who are living an active life, do not always require the constituents of food in the exact proportion in which they are present in pure milk, and yet there are few circumstances under which life cannot be sustained on milk, when properly taken, and with due care to ensure its digestion. ”

“ A large number of cheese consumers desire a cheese containing a considerable proportion of fatty matter. This fatty matter of course ought to be the butter natural to milk, but butter is far more valuable than oleomargarine, and therefore extensive manufactories have been established for the production of oleomargarine cheese. This cheese is made of skim milk, skimmed by separators, so that the butter is practically all abstracted, the deficiency of fat being replaced by the addition of oleomargarine or lard, in sufficient quantity to make the cheese a tolerably fat one. ”

“ Milk dealers are aware of this difficulty in fixing a standard, and are constantly endeavouring to prove that adulterated milk is really pure milk. 1 here is practically no milk adulteration case ever brought into court in which any other defence is raised. The allowance is always said to be insufficient, and the unfortunate milkman has cows worse in quality than those which have been tested by the analysts, and consequently he obtains milk poorer in quality and worse in character than any which they have seen. ”

“ Ten years’ working of the anti-Adulteration Acts has brought us really to this point, that as regards milk our position is hopeless until the law is amended; no one can hope to get pure milk in London, unless under other guarantees than this Act affords, and we ought to tell the public so, that they may take action in the matter. ”

“ If children are brought up without the use of butter, or a butter substitute, they rapidly lose health and condition, and even in many savage races, we find that the fat of animals is consumed in large quantities, taking the place of the butter of more civilised countries. ”

“ I am not quite sure that it is possible to procure genuine milk regularly at the lowest price at which milk is retailed, say at fourpence per quart—exceptional cases may occur, say, for instance, when a public analyst is supplied,—but it is evident from practical experience that those milkmen who are not afraid to charge a price which leaves them a proper margin of profit can and do supply a genuine article ”

“ When these very same cows are taken back to their homesteads, regularly and properly fed, kept from the impure air of the show-shed or show-yard, and milked in a proper way, no such abnormal results are obtained, but the milk assumes the ordinary typical character, even when the quantity yielded is somewhat less. ”

“ Good butter, well made and well worked, should contain somewhere about 88 per cent, of pure butter fat, and the highest class of butters will contain rather more than this. To get the butter fat, however, in a state of purity, the butter must be melted with the water, soluble matters and curd separated ”

“ This term includes a variety of salts which, physiologically considered, are of very great importance in the composition of milk. It is absolutely essential for the formation of bone and muscle that a growing child, or for the matter of that an adult, should be supplied with certain phosphatic substances, lime salts, etc. Milk contains these ingredients in the right proportions to form the bone and muscle of a child. ”

“ This argument, however, has pretty nearly spent itself; it is only occasionally that there is any magistrate who is found to listen to it.
In conclusion, it will be interesting to notice the extent to which pure milk is sold in London. The returns which are made under the Adulteration Acts specify the percentage of adulteration found in each sample, while the tabulated reports issued in the blue books state only the number of adulterated samples, and taking the case of milk do not give the percentage of skimming or watering. ”

“ The percentage of added water in these samples varies from 3 per cent., to 61 per cent. Out of the 300 samples no less than 63, or 20 per cent, of the total, are just on the limit line of solids (not fat) and fat in genuine milk. But as soon as this limit line is passed, watering goes on rapidly; 15 per cent, of the samples contain more than 20 and less than 30 per cent, of added water, and 15 per cent, contain more than 30 per cent.; in all 68 per cent, were watered.
The percentage of skimming is almost equally formidable ”

“ We therefore get a possible error introduced at the starting point, and this starting point or zero being erroneous, it follows that all calculations based upon it must be likewise liable to error. If, however, this were all, the instrument would still be a very useful one in the hands of a careful man, but experiments will soon show that there is another great drawback. ”