MILK MAY BE A FOOD OR A POISON
=Of what Milk is Made.=--Milk is the most perfect food known. It
contains everything needed to build and strengthen the body. In one
gallon of milk there is about one teacupful of pure fat, nearly the
same amount of sugar, one teacupful of body-building food needed to
make muscle and blood. There is also some lime and other mineral
matter to make the bones of the young grow strong. The remaining seven
pints are water.
=Kinds of Milk.=--When milk is left standing in a jar for several
hours, much of the fat, which is present in the form of tiny balls,
rises to the upper part. This upper layer of milk full of fat is
called _cream_. If this is removed, the rest is called _skim milk_.
Milk after standing in a warm place one or two days becomes sour. It
is then sometimes put into a tight box or barrel and beat in such a
way as to break up the little balls of fat. These are then pressed
together into a mass called _butter_. It requires a whole gallon of
milk to make one teacupful of butter. The milk remaining after the
butter is taken out is called _buttermilk_. Cheese is made from milk.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Two kinds of milk, showing the amount of fat
in each.]
=Milk as a Food.=--Milk is a healthful drink for nearly every one and
especially useful for those with weak bodies. During sickness it is
sometimes the only food the patient can take. It is well for children
to use two or three glasses of milk daily with their meals. It should
be sipped slowly so it will mix with the fluid in the mouth and not
form lumps called curds in the stomach.
A quart of milk contains more food for the body than a half pound of
good beefsteak. A pint of milk will supply the body with about as much
food as a pint of oysters. A bowl of milk and a half loaf of bread is
a healthful supper for a boy or girl. Skim milk and buttermilk are
healthful drinks which furnish much food for building bone, blood, and
muscle.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Germs which grow in milk and make it sour.]
=When Milk is a Poison.=--In New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago it has
been noticed for many years that large numbers of babies become sick
in warm weather and many of them die. The doctors learned that most of
the babies taken sick were being fed on cows' milk because their own
mothers did not have enough for them. It was then found that the sick
babies had been using milk from dairies where the stables were dirty,
the cows soiled, and the hands of the milkers unclean. On this account
much dirt got into the milk.
Babies fed on clean milk from clean cows kept in clean stables
remained strong and well. By much study the doctors learned that
_dirty milk is poisonous milk_. The poison is made by the germs or
bacteria living by the millions in unclean stables and in milk buckets
not well washed in boiling water. Dirty milk becomes most poisonous in
hot weather because warmth makes the germs grow very fast and become
so numerous that millions are present in a teaspoonful of milk.
=Keeping Milk Clean.=--During one week of hot weather in Cincinnati,
over a hundred babies were poisoned with dirty milk. In the same week
twice this number were made sick by unclean milk in Philadelphia.
During the hot part of the year in our country bad milk kills more
than a half dozen babies every hour of the day and night.
The only way _to have milk clean is to have clean stables with clean
cows, milked by clean hands, and the milk handled in clean pails, cans,
and bottles which have been scalded after being washed_. The milk must
then be kept cold until used, so that the germs will not grow in it.
=Saving the Baby from Bad Milk.=--If possible, milk should be bought
for the baby in bottles sealed with a pasteboard lid. If milk turns
sour the same day it is delivered, it is not fit for the baby to take.
Heating it makes most milk safer for use. The heating of milk to kill
most of the germs is _pasteurizing_ it. It should be kept very hot for
about fifteen minutes, but should not be allowed to boil. It should be
cooled by placing the vessel on ice or in cold water.
The baby's bottle and nipple should be washed in cold water and then
well scalded immediately after being used. The bottle, the nipple, and
the milk should be kept away from flies and dust. One fly has been
known to carry on its body more germs than there are leaves on a large
tree.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Plan of the prison at Easton, Pa. The crosses
show into which cells the flies brought typhoid germs from the sewer
and made the prisoners sick with fever.]
=Flies and Fever in a Prison.=--In August, 1908, thirteen prisoners in
the jail at Easton, Pennsylvania, were taken ill with typhoid fever.
They had not been near any sick persons and their food and water were
found to be pure. All those sick were in cells in one end of the
prison. About twenty feet from this end a sewer had been uncovered two
weeks before and left open. This sewer carried the waste from the
hospital where several patients were sick with the fever. Flies fed on
the waste in the sewer and then with the germs sticking to their feet
flew into the cells of the prisoners and walked over their cups,
spoons, and food. A little girl who played near this open sewer and
shared her lunch with the flies had a severe attack of fever two weeks
later because the germs scraped from the flies' feet on her food got
into her body and grew.
=Milk and Disease.=--We must be very careful to get not only clean
milk but milk from healthy cows milked by persons who have no typhoid
fever, scarlet fever, or diphtheria in their homes. If only one or two
disease germs get into the milk from the hands of those who have
nursed the sick, these will grow into immense numbers in a single day.
Many of those who use the milk will then become ill. Hundreds are made
sick in this way every year.
PRACTICAL QUESTIONS
1. Why is milk a good food?
2. What does a gallon of milk contain?
3. What is cream?
4. How is butter made?
5. For whom is milk specially good?
6. How does milk become poisonous?
7. Why is dirty milk more poisonous in hot weather?
8. Tell what harm unclean milk does.
9. How may milk be kept clean?
10. Explain how milk is heated to make it safe for use.
11. Show how flies may cause fever.
12. Tell how milk may carry diphtheria into our homes.