MILK is commonly regarded as one of the wholesome and perfect of foods. This is true only in a limited sense, in so far as it applies to the young or new born mammal, for which it is exactly adapted. At this particular time and in this particular milk may truly be regarded as one of the most wholesome and digestible of foods. But it will be noticed that only the infant's digestive apparatus is adapted for the proper digestion of milk. Milk is the natural food of the infant, but not of the adult. In fact, milk may be said to be the un-natural food of the adult, thousands of human beings being wholly unable to use cow's milk without producing serious stomach and intestinal disturbances as evidenced by biliousness, sick headache, flatulence, and a diversity of other disturbances which disappear on cessation of the use of milk.

Long use and custom have placed milk as an article of diet on a much higher plane than it is entitled to occupy. Milk is. notoriously, a germ fluid, literally teeming with germs. It is the climax in this respect. As a matter of fact, milk is one of the most filthy articles which is served upon our tables. It is difficult to procure it clean, and equally as difficult to keep it so.

Anyone who has had to do with cows must be aware of certain glaring facts. The conditions connected with the collection of milk cannot always be ideal, in the majority of cases they are not even clean.

Milk always partakes of the nature of the food used by, and even of, the animal itself, from which it is obtained. Cows suffer from diseases the same as humanity, indigestion, enteritis, tuberculosis, etc. For these and other reasons, obviously, milk cannot be considered an ideal food.

Milk is not an essential food by any means, hundreds and thousands of persons entirely dispensing with it as an article of diet, without missing it. Thousands of children die annually as a result of the use of milk, and yet this same thing will keep on until people get to know with what to feed themselves. It seems a strange thing that the feeding of infants by artificial methods should be confined to milk, especially unstable during the summer season, liable to undergo fermentative changes, and certain to prove under such conditions a serious menace to the life of any child. Cow's milk may well be replaced at such times - the danger period - by the milk of the various nuts, brazil, almond, filbert, etc., also by fruit juices which are sterilized and absolutely safe; anything, or even nothing, is better than milk under such unhealthy conditions. Sterilized water is always of value.

Milk contains proteids in the form of casein as well as some other nitrogenous substances in small quantity: albumen and whey proteids.

2. Oil or fat in the form of cream or butter.

3. A form of sugar, namely, lactose or milk-sugar.

4. Water, holding in solution various mineral constituents or salts, chiefly chlorides, phosphate and sulphate of magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium, and iron.

As an article of food milk is best sterilized as outlined elsewhere. Milk becomes a jelly-like mass almost as soon as it is taken into the stomach. For this reason milk should be taken slowly, in sips, thoroughly insalivated and preferably diluted with water, to which a little salt has been added, all, to make it more absorbable.

Nut-milks are practically the same as cows' milk in composition. They are more easily digested, equally as nourishing, and have the advantage of being clean and free from germs, or contamination of any other kind.

No elaborate apparatus is necessary for sterilizing milk or cream, but where this has to be repeated frequently, and especially for purposes of feeding infants in the hot summer months, it is desirable to have a special sterilizing apparatus for constant use. Ordinarily all that is necessary is that the milk or cream be subjected to a temperature of 160° to 170° F., or somewhat below the boiling point of water, for fifteen to thirty minutes, so that a slight scum is produced. The milk or cream should then be quickly cooled on ice and securely bottled.

Buttermilk is the milk left after the manufacture of butter, and as such is more easily digested than ordinary milk. It is an acid or sour tasting fluid in which the casein or cheese of the milk exists in a finely divided coagulated state. Buttermilk has been largely advocated by German physicians in feeble states of the digestive organs. If used, buttermilk should be fresh.

Koumiss, Kefyr, Galazyme, are fermented milks, more or less like buttermilk.

The Nut-Milks as mentioned under "Nut Dietetics," made from nuts or nut-butter, are far preferable to buttermilk or any of the other sour milks. Milk, cream, and butter can well be replaced by nuts in all essentials.

The milk made from almonds or Brazil nuts contain all the elements of nutrition of cow's milk, and can be taken by individuals who cannot take cow's milk or cream. The fat or butter of nuts is miscible with water, hence its ready assimilation by the human stomach.

Butter. Fresh butter is usually considered one of the most easily digested forms of fatty matter, and it is on this account a very valuable food. When rancid, or when its fatty acids have been set free from exposure to heat, as in cooking, it is badly tolerated by the stomach. Butter, like milk, is liable to be contaminated with germs. For this reason sterilized butter, made from sterilized cream, is a much cleaner and more wholesome preparation than the ordinary butter. The nut-butters, made from the various nuts, peanuts, brazils, etc., are a perfect substitute for the ordinary butter made from the milk of the cow, besides this they are invariably clean.

Cream varies somewhat in composition. Cream should always be sweet and clean, and to this end may be sterilized.

Cheese is generally considered an exceedingly valuable, nutritive, and economical food. It contains twice as much nitrogenous substances as meat. Cheeses , vary considerably in composition, from the rich Stilton, down through Dutch, Cheshire, Roquefort, to the poorer cheeses.