The Portland daily press., 1892-05-06
PORTLAND'S MILKMEN.
Inspector Dresser Says Some Of Them
Are Careless.
THEY LET WATER LEAK INTO
THEIR CANS In SOME WAY.

Some of Them May Be Prosecuted-The
Use of the MISREPRESENTATION Meth
DDS of Adulteration-A Mysterious
Fatty Substance Which Mr.. Dresser
Finds in Some Milk.
There has been considerable of a stir for the
past week among the men who drive and man.
age the 1853 milk carts that rattle through Port
land streets every morning and deliver their
hundreds OF gallons of milk to thousands OF
customers. During the long illness of DR..
Cummings, the former inspector of milk, there
was no one to oversee the supply that was being
dealt out to Portland breakfast tables. AS
good people sometimes do, some of the milkmen
seem to have been slipping backward in their
resolutions. At least Inspector of Milk Daniel
H. Dresser says they have, and declares that al
together too many miikmen are serving adulter
ated milk to Portland homes every morning. He
has been inspecting milk that has been COM
planned of for several weeks, and has found good
cause for complaint. There is prospect that at
least one milk dealer may be prosecuted in a
few days if he doesn't mend his ways. The
Method of Inspecting Milk
pursued by Mr.. Dresser is quite simple. He
has little instrument which he calls a lactome-
ter. 1t is little glass bulb baIlasted with lead
en- shot and fitted with stem which stands up
right when the bulb is foated in any liquid. 1t
is well known fact that floating bodies sink to
varying depths in varying liquids For in
stance, one of the big English steamers, in 60
ing out OF the fresh water of the st. Lawrence
to the salt water of the ocean will rise several
inches, because the ocean water, having more
salt and other solid substances in it, has more
power to hold up floating objects. This princi-
pie is used in testing milk. The little stem that
sticks up from the bulb has various marks on it,
like the graduations on thermometer Begin
ming at the highest point on the stem is the
mark zero, showing the point to which the stem
sinks IN water. Running from zero down the
stem are the graduations 10, 20, 30, etc., as far
as 40. In thicker liquids than water the stem
does not sink to the zero point; and in pure
milk the stem stands at 100. If the bulb sinks
any lower the stem will show less than 100, or,
as Mr.. Dresser claims, that the milk is not pure.
Now Inspector Dresser declares that
Large Portion of the Milk
that has been delivered to Portland customers
has been below 1o0 much of it no higher than
20. This means, Mr.. Dresser says, that there
must have been adulteration.
The favorite and time honored method of
adulteration is by putting water into it. The
old joke of the nilxman and the pump has
made this plain for many years. But when
water is put into milk it turns it blue 1t is then
necessary to restore the yellow color by using
burnt sugar, or by putting in a yellow pow
der sold by some wholesale grocers. Mr.. Dress
er says that this yellow powder is
Pu1verized Dande1ion Blossoms.
There is method of cheating the lactometer
which some miikmen resort to. The addition Of
water reduces the density and and allows the
'lactometer to sink. By restoring that density
the lactometer can be made to rise up to or even
beyond the pure 100 mark. Lime, chalk and
starch are used to restore the density. Lime
and chalk are liable to settle to the bottom of
the can and thus betray the milkman, so starch
is much preferred. Inspector Dresser says
that he has found in some milk brought to him
another substance which seems fatty, much
like beef tallow. His analysis has not been
carried to the extent of determining just what
the substance maybe.