New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-29
the eclipse may be visible in largo portion OF
Canada, on the Atlantic Ocean. in Eastern
Europe, and throughout Africa.
BATTERED MILK.

by the Health Board in improving the cnarac-
ter of the milk sold in this city. The work
was begun last Fall, and has been carried on
ever since, in spite of much opposition and
encouragement. section of the Sanitary
Code gives the requisite authority, by prOvid-
ing that at places where milk, butter, and
cheese are offered for sale, those articles shall
not be in an unwhOles0me condition; and
milk from cows kept in stables, or adulterated
with water, is specified among the articles
which it is an Ohense to have on
sale. Among the excellent work done
by Gov. Tildcn in checking the PERM
cious legislation of the last session, was his
veto of a bill which was intended to destroy
the force of the present restrictions on the
sale of adulterated milk. Two courses were
open to the Board of Health in carrying out
the law: to have series OF very expensive
analyses made of the milk offered for sale
throughout the city, or to have the milk ap-
proximately tested by means of simple little
instrument, costing dollar, known as
lactometer The Board wisely adopted the lat
ter alternative.
About 40 per cent of the milk supply OF
the city comes by the Erie Railway; more
than quarter by the New-lIaven road; an
eighth by the Harlem; tenth each by tne
Hudson River and the New Jersey Midland.
The farmers on these roads were glad to have
their milk tested. The watering is rarely done
at the farm Just where it is done is, OF
course one of the most difficult things TO as
certain. If, for instance, 1T Is performed
on ferry boat crossing the hudson IN
the dim gray of the morning, the cans which
hold water that is to be added have that
water colored with enough milk to conceal the
fraud ut the time. But after the adulterated
fluid has reached the stores and minor depots
from which it is rctailed, its condition Is easily
detected by means of the lactometer. The
scale of this instrument runs from zero to l2O.
IL plunged in pure water it sinks to zero; If
put in first-rate milk at temperature OF
CO., it rises to 12O if such milk is mixed in
equal parts with water, the lactometer floats
at the halfway point, marking 60. In
long series of trials on the farms where New
York milk is produced, the officials OF the
Health Board rarely or never found healthy
cow, no matter how fed, whose MIX
when cooled to co. marked less
than 100 with the lactometer. Care
fully made trials show remarkable
uniformity among great numbers OF cows. Of
course the instrument only shows the density
of tho milk if thickened with some foreign
substance it might raise the lactOmeter to the
standard hight after watering; but the chem
ical examination of 300 samples of city milk
has failed to indicate that chalk or Sleeps
brains or anything else but water had been
added.
When, therefore the lactometer sank below
100, in the milk offered for sale at shops and
stores in this city, notice was given to the
proprietors that they were liable to arrest. In
about 20 aggravated cases they were brought
before magistrates and fined sums varying from
$50 to 5000. The whole city was distIicted,
the shops and stores We're visited, and their
milk was tested. Very curious results were OBJ
tanned In some of the poorest quarters OF the
city the milk was by no means the
worst Perhaps third OF that in Baxter-st.
was below the standard, two samples marking
only 76; but there was longer list of watered
milk in Second-st., and one place where
the lactOmeter stood at so. The milk being
usually kept in an ice-chest, is generally found
when for sale at the required temperature.
Many of the dealers have bought lactometers
since this investigation began, and if they
dution 80 as to keep it above the 100 mark
The effects of these measures are at once
perceptible upon revisiting the places where
milk is sold, sufficient time having been given
to the retail dealers to take the necessary steps
for changing their supply if they had been
cheated by their mikmen. The Improvement
when the tabulated records are put side by
sidc showing what was ascertained at each
visit, may be briefly stated as indicating that
at least so per cent of the places where
adulterated milk used to be sold now
keep an article fairly up to the standard.
Great efforts have been made, however, in
some recent cases brought into court, to prove
that the lactOmeter test was not to be trusted.
Eminent scientific evidence was brought to
bear upon this point, the theory being advanced
that q difference of feeding might reduce I'M
adulterated milk below the 100 standard,
while watered milk might rise above it. Thus
far the Board of Health has succeeded in
the prosecutions, and the dealers have been
fined notwithstanding the talent brought
to their defense. The public has
deep interest in the continuance and success
of these sanitary measures, which have already
provided New-YOrk with an average Of much
better mix imam nelSHOOfinS Cittcs Lie laC-
tometer would doubtless be of great service
elsewhere than in shops and stores, to show
the quality of the article supplied by the milk
man. The simple fact that out of every 25
infants that perish with bowel complaints, 10
are found to have been fed from q. nursing
bottle, is sufficient index of the relation that
the quality of city milk bears to the health of
families.
That amiable but very dangerous defect in the
Presidents character which blinds him to tho most