Milk of course differs slightly, according to the animal from which it is derived; and this point we shall have again to consider at greater length, but at present we must simply view it as a typically perfect food.
It would be hard to give any food a higher recommendation than this, and yet it is not too much to say that two-thirds of the inhabitants of London, or indeed of England, have any practical knowledge of what pure milk is, and that at least one-half of the remainder only consume it occasionally rather as a luxury than as an article of food.
Now milk is not only a perfect food, but it is the most extensively used food. Some might think, that this post of honour belongs to bread, but really I think it would be the food that, including children with the population, is used more extensively than even bread.
From pretty careful enquiry, it appears that the consumption of milk among the middle classes of London is something like io gallons per head per year; but there are a large proportion of the poor to whom the cost of milk is serious, and there are a large proportion of the rich to whom, I am afraid, milk is less palatable than it should be; and therefore it would be a very moderate estimate to say that, on the average, 3½ gallons per head per year is consumed by the entire population, or say, 1½ ounces per head per day.
Now London has been rendered somewhat notorious by the outcry about the amount of the Water Rates; it will perhaps surprise some to hear that the amount of the Milk Bill of London is within about 10 per cent, of the amount of the Water Bill of London, and while the water rates amount to about £1,562,000, the milk rates, if so I may call them, amount to £1,400,000 per year, or about 5s. 10d. per head per annum.
There is a good deal of difference, however, in the actual incidence of the milk rate as distinct from the water rate; because the poor, who have but little money to spare, are practically untouched by the water rate, their proportion of the landlord’s tax being almost too small for consideration, while, on the other hand, they are among the largest
