LABORATORY-MADE MILK.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 167, 20 April 1916, Page 4

LABORATORY-MADE MILK.

A discovery which should prove of great interest to housewives and mothers has recently been brought to perfection in a London chemical laboratory. This is a process of manufacturing synthetically a pure and wholesome milk of high nutritive value, possessing all the virtues of the original article, none of its many dangers.

The discovery originated many years ago as the result of the ingenuity of a Chinaman who saw a possible substitute for milk in the native drink prepared from the soya bean. His efforts, however, met with only partial success, owing to the fact that the fluid prepared by him had an exceedingly penetrating and—to Western palates—disagreeable taste. It was left to a German chemist to lay the foundations of the present synthetic milk by suggesting a composite fluid, made up of all the ingredients of cow's milk in correct proportion.

The fluid, as far as its appearance is concerned, is quite indistinguishable from rich cow's milk. It is delightfully smooth on the palate. On the ether hand, the taste seems to sonic persons slightly different from that of ordinary milk. It is said that oven this slight "taste" can be removed at will.

The advantages of the new milk arc obvious. Ii is, of course, free from all suspicion o/ being contaminated with "milk-borne'' diseases like tuberculosis, scarlet fever, or diphtheria. It can, moreover, be niacle up in any proportion desired, that is, with more or less casein, fat, sugar, or salts, and thus can be supplied to children and invalids according to a medical prescription. Finally the new milk can be produced more cheaply than can ordinary milk, and should thus prove a real boon to the poor.