Page:Pure milk - a lecture delivered in the lecture room of the exhibition, July 30th, 1884 (IA b28525140).pdf/8

 dealers call it;—but anyhow, whether it is persecution or prosecution, for close upon twenty-four years—that is, ever since the passing of the Act of 1860 for the suppression of adulteration—milk dealers have appeared in police courts, quarter sessions, and every other court having power to deal with such matters, not only from week to week and day by day, but many times a day, and yet milk adulteration goes on as fast as ever.

I shall have to refer to this subject in detail, with statistics, later on in the course of my lecture, so that for the present I want to point out simply, that there is a bright side to the dark picture I have drawn. 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; and I venture to say that by doing so, they satisfy their customers far better than if the price were reduced and the quality let down likewise. And considering the subject of pure milk, it is essential that I should first of all look at its constituents, and to some extent consider their food value separately and collectively.

Pure milk ought to be such a simple and straightforward term that it should not need definition, but legal sophistry has been exerted to such an extent upon the milk subject, and discussions of every sort have taken place in reference to milk, that even these two words differ in meaning according to the views of the persons by whom they are used. I define pure milk to be the milk produced by a properly fed cow in a state of health. I do not by this mean to imply for a moment that a cow should be fed to the highest pitch which modern science can devise, or that a veterinary surgeon should be kept in constant attendance upon it; but I do imply, that a man who puts forward his herd of cows as milk-producing machines, and sells the