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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 538, 30 December 1867, Page 1

Liebig’s Artificially Peepaeed Mile. —This celebrated chemist has made a communication to the French Academy of Sciences on the subject of prepared milk. He says ihat the composition of milk is not uniform ; the proportions of caseine, sugar of milk, and butter vary, as is well known, with the nature of the mother’s food. “ I take,” says Liebig, “ for the base of my composition the normal form of woman’s milk, after the analysis of M Haidien, of Giessen, and of which 1000 parts contain 31 parts of caseine, 43 of sugar of milk, and 21 of butter. The plastic and heat-giving substances in this milk amount to 10 in 38; in that of the cow unskimmed, as 10 to 30 ; and in the same skimmed, as 10 to 25. I employ for my preparation skimmed milk, wheat flour, sprouted barley, and bi-carbonate of potash. It cannot be said that starch is unfit for the nourishment of infants ; but it is nevertheless true that its transformation into sugar in the stomach imposes useless labour on the organization of the suckling ; this is spared by first converting the starch into sugar, or soluble dextrine. This consideration accounts for my use of germinated bailey, <_r malt, in my preparation; it is also important that the consistency of the mixture should be such that it can be administered by means of a feeding-bottle.” The preparation of the artificial milk is thus described -. —Sixteen grammes of flour are boiled in ton times its own weight of skimmed milk until the mixture is perfectly homogenous ; it is then removed from the fire, and immediately afterwards is added to it sixteen grammes of the barley ground in a coffee-mill, and mixed with twice its weight of cold water and three grammes of a solution of bi-carbonate of potash, consisting of eleven paits of water to two parts of the salt. After the addition of the barley and bi-carbonate, the vessel is placed either in hot water or in a ( warm position until the mixture shall have lost its thickness, and assumed the consistency of cream. At the end of fif teen or twenty minutes the vessel is again placed in the fire and allowed to boil for a few seconds, after which the milk is passed through a close linen or hair strainer, in order to clear it of its fibrous matter of the barley. Before giving this milk to the child, it should, however, be allowed to stand at rest, so that the finer fibrous matter still held in suspension may subside. Milk prepared after this method contains almost exactly the same fleshmaking and heat-giving substances as normal women’s milk, —that is to say, 10 to 3S, and after being carried to the boiling point it will keep good in summer for twenty-four hours.—Journal of the Society of Arts.

Cakes and Consolations or Oifice. —A little time ago (says the Wellington Independent , 17th Dec.,) Mr Stafford, the Premier of New Zealand, while speaking at the “ Bank Dinner,” bemoaned the fact that people like himself had no consolation in submitting to the cares which are involved by taking office. Poor fellow ! he had tried to work the “consolations out” in his mind “ as a family gratification ” but couldn’t We will try to console Mr Stafford. There is a certain estate, called the Lowry Bay estate, which the colony, having purchased at a long price, now keeps in order for the benefit of his Excellency the Governor. Grazing on that estate there are certain cows; and feeding thereon there are certain fowls;—which creatures, two legged and four legged, are maintained at the expense of the colony; and a certain laborer or gardener is paid —his salary being on the estimates—to attend to their wants. So far, all is right. His Excellency the Governor wants something of the kind, and the colony it willing to give it. But it so happens that the larger part of the butter and eggs so nroduccd has hitherto found its way, not to the table of the Governor, but to that of Mr Stafford, who, no doubt, eats his eggs end toast every morning with all the greater zest because he has not to pay for them. When Mr Stafford again wants “to tell a fable to his children ” about the vanity of taking office, we trust he will not forget the “ family gratification ’’ of eggs and butter.