THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF MILK.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 181, 28 February 1868, Page 3

THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF MILK.

Milk embraces the essential nutriment principles of all forms of food, and when pure nothing contributes more to physical health than it does. It is the first food of infants, and feasting on it alone these tender germs of humanity acquire strength and vigor of growth; through life its nutritious qualities are recognised; adults use it with benefit to themselves, and it sustains existence when old age comes to enfeeble the body and limbs. The composition of milk is—Ist, a rich nitrogenised material; 2nd, fatty principles ; 3rd, a peculiar sugar; 4th, various mineral salts, principally consisting of phosphate of soda, phosphate of lime, phosphate of iron and phosphate of magnesia; the potash exists in the form chloride of potassium. These substances are held in suspension by water. The composition ofjcaseine is identical with the muscular substance and with the albumen of the blood, and in milk we find this composition in a soluble state. Hence the feeble powers of the infant are equal to its digestion and assimilation. To supply the waste of energetic respirations we find two non-nitrogenous bodies, butter and sugar; these when in the body, are resolved into carbonic acid and water, and develop the necessary heat. As the body absorbs much lime in its construction, we find it in milk in excess of all other salt; and this ingredient enables the growth of the bones to keep pace with the growth of the body. The phosphate of soda and the cloride of potassium mingle with the blood and promote secretion, and give wonderful harmony to the chemical and vital changes of the system. " What," asks Dr. Nicole, "is a man or an animal, but a kind of chemical laboratory, where transmutations and changes in gross matter are going on constantly in order that force may be developed, and the machinery or body kept in motion ? Is an atom of iron, or potash, or soda, any more sacred, or entitled to higher consideration, because it has happened to be absorbed from the rocks or dust by vegetable growth and taken into the body, there to be manipulated by the unseen chemist, and perhaps assigned for a brief period a place among the earthy or atmos* pheric constituents of the flesh ? What is health but an undisturbed play of chemical affinities in the mineral organism ? What is disease but imperfect chemical reactions, or insufficient supply of necessary chemical agents in the same ?" The color, odour, taste, and medicinal effect of milk may be modified by the employment of certain articles of food. Physicians fully understand this fact, and in France medicine is administered to the mother in order that through her it may exert the desired influence upon her suckling child. When cows milk is used we should first ascertain that it comes from perfectly healthy animals, for the disease of the producer affects the production by destroying to a great or less degree, the harmony of chemical action."