An historical, scientific, and practical essay on milk, as an article of human sustenance : with a consideration of the effects consequent upon the present unnatural methods of producing it for the supply of large cities / by Robert M. Hartley.

  • Hartley, Robert Milham, 1796-1881.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An historical, scientific, and practical essay on milk, as an article of human sustenance : with a consideration of the effects consequent upon the present unnatural methods of producing it for the supply of large cities / by Robert M. Hartley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    for my opinion, has impressed my mind with a strong conviction of the value of your researches. Knowing, as every physician in this city does, the appalling effects of improper diet upon the health and lives of the children, of which impure and innutritious milk constitutes the greater part, I have often wondered that the corrective power of_ the law, or of public opinion, has not long since been applied. The reason can only be found in the fact, that the people have been ignorant of their danger. I trust that your interesting and val- uable book, will arouse the community to a sense of the hidden dangers which surround them, and induce them speedily to cor- rect an evil which annually destroys the lives of so great a num- ber of the children attempted to be reared in this city. 1 am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, N. H. DERING. From David M. Reese, A.M. M. D. of New-York, Profes- sor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, in the Castleton Medical College, Vermont. New. York, December 22d, 1841. Dear Sir : I have availed myself of an early opportunity to examine the proof-sheets of your treatise on milk, which you did me the fa- vor to leave for my perusal, and am pleased and gratified to learn, that to a just appreciation of the importance of the subject to human health and life, you have added a diligent and scientific inquiry into a topic hitherto comparatively unexplored. In the historical disquisition with which the volume opens, there is an amount of information for which we may seek else- where in vain, especially in reference to the comparative physi- ology concerned in the investigation. Your scientific and phi- losophical analysis of milk, taken from different lactiferous animals, and from cows both under wholesome and unwhole- some regimen ; as well as in the tables, illustrations, and criti- cisms by which the analysis is accompanied, yon have given proof of a thorough acquaintance with the subject in all its bear- ings. In the remedial provisions which you have indicated in the work, for the preservation of our population in large cities from the physical and moral mischiefs consequent upon the sup- ply of impure and poisonous milk, you have practically demon^ sirated the utilitarian character of your researches, and merited the title of a public benefactor. As one of the guardians of the public health, I owe you the expression of my grateful thanks, for the lucid and conclusive expose you have made of the iniquitous, demoralizing, and poisonous work of distillation, as carried on in New-York and