The organ of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, O. [Ohio]) 1852-1853, 1852-04-09
POISONED MILK.

The public seem to open their eyes slow
ly to the evils resulting, to our children es-
pecially, from the use Of distillery milk, or
the substance called milk, drawn from cows
fed on still-ho slops. And yet, notwith-
standing the apathy heretofore manifested,
we cannot but hope reiterated exposure and
the awful mortality among children from
week to week, may at least rouse the people
to protect themselves against the poisonous
beverage.
DR.. A. K. Gardner, as Chairman Of Com
mittee Of the Academy of Medicine, has just
issued a pamphlet which furnishes much
important information on the nature and
effects of distillery milk. He treats Of the
diseased condition Of the cattle, then Of the
diseased condition of the milk, and lastly of
the diseases and death which it inficts upon
the consumers. We wish our city readers
would study this treatise for themselves.
Meanwhile, we quote few of the state
ments
"Prof. Charles A. Lee, formerly professor
of Materia Medica in the University Of New
York, states the effect as follows So child
rem who are fed with "still-slop milk, !"
have a pale, cachetic appearance, are ex-
tremely subject to scrofula, and are liable to
take every epidemic disease prevalent. To
scarlet-feYer, measles, hopping cough, they
are particularly subject, and will take them
upon the slightest exposure such children
being apt to sink under any serious disease
with which they may be attacked. There
is laxity of the solids, and vitiated con-
dition of the fluids, which predispose them
to disease in its most malignant form, DC. ="
A l, eraxF NTau "
number of cases where the health Of chill
dren has been utterly destroyed by the use
of still-slop milk and / could convince you
that cholera intantUm itself, the great scOurge
of our city, is in fact chiefly caused blythe use
of this milk, either by the mother or child ;
for it is a singular fact, that in the large
cities of Europe, where other causes of dis
ease, with the exception Of this, are as pre-
valentas in New York, this disease Is abso-
lutely unknown. Hence the efficacy of a
removal to the country as a change Of diet
is the necessary consequence"
From experiments carefully made, it ap-
pears that while good country milk coagu-
lates in the stomach, and is ready for as
similating with the system in one hour, dis
tillery milk requires six to eight hours, and
of course during that time lies an indiges-
tible mass in the stomach.
To show that distillery milk must differ
much from that which is derived from nat
ural food, we must refer to the fact that
cow'smilk is well known to be so sensibly
affected by carrots, turnips, onions and cab
bages, as to be perceptible TO the taste,
This proves the dependence of the milk from
the food given TO the animal And if such
changes are produced by a mere change OF
vegetables, how much greater must be the
change when descending to the mere sour
slops of the still
Add to this the fact that in some of the
stables which supply the city with milk,
from 1000 to 1000 cows are kept without air
or exercise, constantly standing, till they
drop down with disease, and that they con
tinue to be MIXED long after rottenness has
entered into their very bones, and we may
have some idea of the disgusting, poisonous
nature of the milk thus furnished.