28 THE ANALYST. MILK ADULTEBATION I N NEW YORK. WE have received from Professor C. F. Chandler, of Columbia College, New York, one of the sub-editors of the American Chemist, a report of the proceedings in a somewhat remarkable milk case, which was taken as a test case, being one of some 30 which had been instituted in the court of General Sessions of New York, against members of the Milk Dealers’ Association, for selling adulterated milk.According t o the report, the law of the State of New York in reference to adulterated milk is of an exceedingly stringent character. The Ordinance states that ‘‘ no milk which has been watered, adul- terated, reduced, or changed in any respect by the addition of water or other substance, or by the removal of cream, shall be brought into, held, kept, or offered for eale, at any place in the City of New York, nor shall any one keep, have, or offer for sale in the said city any such milk.” The Counsel for the prosecution, in his speech, stated that the milk supply of New York was 400,000 quarts per day, and that according to reliable statisticsin their hands, this was watered to the extent of at least 25 p.c.The most unsatisfactory part of the case is, that the milk appears to have been tested mainly, if not entirely, by means of the lactometer, and it certainly is very unsatisfactory to find that in 1877, an almost exploded method like that should be still in use on the other side of the Atlantic.The report includes some tabulated statements as t o the character of the milk given by certain cows on the farm from which the suspected sample had been taken, which cows were at this time nearly (‘ dried up.” Thus we find that eight cows, all which were within about 2 or 24 months of cahing, only yielded a total quantity of 12$ pints of milk, the quantity in one case falling as low as a half-pint, and the maximum being three pints.I n only two cases, however, did the milk from these cows fall sensibly below the 100Q mark of the lactometer, which, according to the report, corresponds to a gravity of 1029.The least of all was a black cow, age not stated, and the gravity of the milk is reported to have been only 1023, and fortunately we have the full analysis of this milk given. We find that the reaction was strongly alkaline, the amount of cream was doubt- ful, estimated at 10.50 p.c., fat 1-78 p.c.caseine, albumen and sugar 5.81 P.c., salts, *89 p.c, ; this milk therefore shows only 8.48 solids not fat, and estimating this on theTHE ANALYST. 29 standard adopted by the Society, there is no question but that it would be considered as adulterated with 6 p.c. of water, but we note the opinions expressed in the report by the analysts called for the defence-that is those who wanted t o prove that this milk was genuine-who say the milk (?) from the black cow yielded 10.5 per cent.by volume of scum, that is curdy matter, mixed with fatty globules, it also deposited a sediment, and Professor Chandler and Dr. O’Connor, who examined it for the prosecution, state as follows--“ hfter standing a week it exhibited a strong alkaline reaction, and possessed a disagreeable taste.The microscope showed the sediment to contain pus corpuscles ; this is an abnormal fluid, which cannot properly 6e cnlled mill;.” We fancy that most reported cases of pure milk of abnormally low quality would be disposed of in the same way if a similar thorough investigation were made as to the state of disease under which the cows are at the time labouring. We remember only one case of the kind in England-that of a milk dealer in London, who was fined $20 for selling milk from a diseased cow. The case is reported in the “Proceedings of‘ the Society of Public Analysts.”