Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-10-17
FACTS ABOUT MILK.
craMcHANGES AND CONTAMINATION
OF THE VALUABLE FOOD.
Information Important to Women-House-
wives and Mothers should Be Versed In
MISREPRESENTATION and Pasteuriza-
ton Simple Matters.

The present activity in enforcing the
law for milk inspection is point of great
satisfaction to all persons intelligently in
terested in the health OF the city. 1t EN-
phasizes anew, too, the prolific source of
danger which is harbored in this fluid,
than which in its unadulterated and ster-
ilized state no article of food is more val
liable and life sustaining.
To this easy possibility Of contamination
must be added the equal ease and about as
serious menace of its adulteration.f Doc
tored milk, ," said physician whose work
lies in the east side tenement districts,
'has been a Herod in this city that has
annually slain thousands of children
through infantile summer complaint and
second summer diarrhea.
Against these grave indictments, how
ever is the grandly overbalancing knowl-
edge that pure, microbeless cows milk is
an ideal food for the human system, and
in the case OF children more natural and
life sustaining ofttimes than the real
natures food that is secreted in the moth
er's breast. Since, then, it is so impera-
tive that milk must DO consumed, it is
equally imperative that its various stages
and conditions as affecting its nutritive
and health giving value should be under
stood In Boston you are expected to cat
"educated' crackers. which means that
YOU must be educated to the cracker that
is made from whole wheat BY the same
token educated milk only should be used
Or, better, every house mother should be
educated to the knowledge of what milk is
proper to be consumed by the members of
her kingdom.
1t is said that the English and Ameri-
.an peoples are about the only nations who
seem to profit nothingb experience. They
continue to drink milk uncool1ed and with
out protection from infection. 1t is true,
though strange, that nearly every savage
nation on the globe that uses milk at all
has some method of protection, more or
less effective.
Experience is often q better teacher than
sciencc-that is, if her teachings are con-
sidcrcd-as for example, the French dairy
maid always scalds her milk before churn-
ing Not because she knows anything
about sterilization but because she knows
her butter will be better. She does not
know that heating stops the growth of
kind of bacteria which would, if allowed
to develop, reduce the richness of the milk
by changing the fat globules into other
properties. Observation has taught her,
also, the effect of warm and cold weather
upon milk. But little she dreams that
cold merely stops the growth of bacteria,
while warmth develops them.
The way milk is often served in Naples
is another illustration Of the way results
may teach, with no knowledge of the causes
which accomplish them. If the customer
choose, he may order the milking done at
his own door, in which case a freshly
washed COW, with a tidy mixer, appears,
while he stands by and sees the fluid
drawn and receives 1t unwatered and clean.
Milk, as used in large cities, is very
different article from that used by primi-
tive man, who followed his flock about
| and to whom the concentrations of the
stable and other modern surroundings
were unknown. 1t is seldom perfectly
fresh pretty sure to be adulterated and
almost always dirty. 1t is stated that
somewhere in the Union there is dairy
where the cows and dairymen are obliged
TO take % bath and part their hair in the
middle" before milking hour. However
true this may he, it is presumably regime
for the securing of clean milk but scarcely
a sufficient one.
A large number of yeasts and molds
grow in milk kumyss is merely the pro-
duction of Tactic acid and alcohol, by the
growth OF the yeast plant. Some yeasts
coagulato milk, while molds which are a
form of decay, give that peculiar flavor SC
much desired in Roquefort cheese.
All these germ changes in milk are,
however, items Of slight interest to the
majority of persons so long ms they are not
disease producing. Could we be sure of
perfectly clean milk from perfectly
healthy COW the laity might dispense with
bacterial knowledge and Information re
latlng to germ growth and transforlna-
tions. AS this is almost an impossibility,
even on ones own farm, much less IL
| cities and towns supplied by tradespcople,
we must lend our attention and take out
our pocket dictionaries and fathom the
meaning of new adiectives as the scientists
tack them before OR after the simple word
Of four letters.
Things that appear very difficult ant
mysterious are sometimes very simple
''when you know how"
The writer was approached recently by
perplexed young mother for an oxplana-
ton of the several terms now being mp
Piled to milk. She had q notion that some
chemical was added to produce these vari-
Gus conditions. This error was equaled by
her beautiful faith that milk which could
be procured direct from a country farm
must be pure. That the average country
farm dairy is conducted on methods long
since pronounced questionable by science
was a revelation when il YVES explained TO
her.
Another surprise to this seeking woman
was to be told that sterilization and Pas
teurization were accomplished by simply
raising the temperature of the milk to q
sufficient degree OF heat TO destroy any dis
| ease germs which might be in the milk,
chilling it suddenly to arrest the process
at this stage and keeping it closely covered
and protected from rcinfectiOn until il was
used.
Until we are assured of absolute purity
we should resort to n protection. Science
has Enthusiastically established the impor-
lance of this. BY heating the daily supply
to l67 degrees F.. in double boiler, and
then cooling rapidly there need be no fear
of disease germs for at least 4S hours The
process renders the infinitesimals quite
harmless.-New York Times.
Prehistoric Egyptian Giants.
In 1881. when Professor Zimmerman
was engaged in exploring the ruins of an