British polity, one of the three divisions of the laity. See Laity.

This state includes the whole of the soldiery, or such persons as are peculiarly appointed among the rest of the people for the safeguard and defence of the realm.

In a land of liberty, it is extremely dangerous to make a dilapidated order of the profession of arms. In absolute monarchies, this is necessary for the safety of the prince; and arises from the main principle of their constitution, which is that of governing by fear; but, in free states, the profession of a soldier, taken singly and merely as a profession, is justly an object of jealousy. In these no man should take up arms but with a view to defend his country and its laws; he puts not off the citizen when he enters the camp; but it is because he is a citizen, and would wish to continue so, that he makes himself for a while a soldier. The laws therefore, and constitution of these kingdoms, know no such state as that of a perpetual standing soldiery, bred up to no other profession than that of war; and it was not till the reign of Henry VII. that the kings of England had so much as a guard about their persons.

In the time of the Anglo-Saxons, as appears from Edward the Confessor's laws, the military force of England was in the hands of the dukes or heretochs, who were constituted through every province and county in the kingdom; being taken out of the principal nobility, and such as were most remarkable for being Military. ing sapientem, fideles, et animos. Their duty was to lead and regulate the English armies with a very unlimited power; prout eis visum fuerit, ad honorem coronae et utilitatem regni. And because of this great power they were elected by the people in their full assembly, or folk-mote, in the same manner as sheriffs were elected: following still that old fundamental maxim of the Saxon constitution, that where any officer was intrusted with such power, as, if abused, might tend to the opprobrium of the people, that power was delegated to him by the vote of the people themselves. So too, among the ancient Germans, the ancestors of our Saxon forefathers, they had their dukes, as well as kings, with an independent power over the military, as the kings had over the civil state. The dukes were elective, the kings hereditary: for so only can be confidently understood that passage of Tacitus, Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute famuli. In constituting their kings, the family or blood royal was regarded; in choosing their dukes or leaders, warlike merit: just as Caesar relates of their ancestors in his time, that whenever they went to war, by way either of attack or defence, they elected leaders to command them. This large share of power, thus conferred by the people, though intended to preserve the liberty of the subject, was perhaps unreasonably detrimental to the prerogative of the crown: and accordingly we find a very ill use made of it by Edric duke of Mercia, in the reign of King Edmund Ironside; who, by his office of duke or heretoch, was entitled to a large command in the king's army, and by his repeated treacheries at last transferred the crown to Canute the Dane.

It seems universally agreed by all historians, that King Alfred first settled a national militia in this kingdom, and by his prudent discipline made all the subjects of his dominions soldiers: but we are unfortunately left in the dark as to the particulars of this his so celebrated regulation; though, from what was last observed, the dukes seem to have been left in possession of too large and independent a power: which enabled Duke Harold, on the death of Edward the Confessor, though a stranger to the royal blood, to mount for a short space the throne of this kingdom, in prejudice of Edgar Etheling the rightful heir.

Upon the Norman conquest, the feudal law was introduced here in all its rigour, the whole of which is built on a military plan. In consequence thereof, all the lands in the kingdom were divided into what were called knight's fees, in number above 62,000; and for every knight's fee, a knight or soldier, miles, was bound to attend the king in his wars, for 40 days in a year; in which space of time, before war was reduced to a science, the campaign was generally finished, and a kingdom either conquered or victorious. By this means the king had, without any expense, an army of 60,000 men always ready at his command. And accordingly we find one, among the laws of William the Conqueror, which in the king's name commands and firmly enjoins the personal attendance of all knights and others; quod habeant et teneant se semper in armis et equis, ut decet et oportet: et quod semper sint prompti et parati ad servitium suum integrum nobis expendendum et peragendum, cum opus adveniat, secundum quod debent de feudis et tenementis suis de jure nobis facere. This personal service in process of time degenerated into pecuniary commutations or aids; and at last the military part of the feudal system was abolished at the Restoration, by stat. 12 Car. II. c. 24. See Feudal System.

In the mean time, we are not to imagine that the kingdom was left wholly without defence in case of domestic insurrections, or the prospect of foreign invasions. Besides those who by their military tenures were bound to perform 40 days service in the field, first the affize of arms, enacted 27 Hen. II. and afterwards the statute of Winchester, under Edward I. obliged every man, according to his estate and degree, to provide a determinate quantity of such arms as were then in use, in order to keep the peace; and constables were appointed in all hundreds by the latter statute, to see that such arms were provided. These weapons were changed, by the statute 4 and 5 Ph. and M. c. 2, into others of more modern service; but both this and the former provisions were repealed in the reign of James I. While these continued in force, it was usual from time to time for our princes to issue commissions of array, and send into every county officers in whom they could confide, to muster and array (or fet in military order) the inhabitants of every district; and the form of the commission of array was settled in parliament in the 5 Hen. IV. But at the same time it was provided, that no man should be compelled to go out of the kingdom at any rate, nor out of his shire, but in cases of urgent necessity; nor should provide soldiers unless by consent of parliament. About the reign of King Henry VIII. and his children, lord-lieutenants began to be introduced, as standing representatives of the crown, to keep the counties in military order; for we find them mentioned as known officers in the statute 4 and 5 Ph. and M. c. 3, though they had not been then long in use; for Camden speaks of them in the time of Queen Elizabeth as extraordinary magistrates, constituted only in times of difficulty and danger.

In this state things continued till the repeal of the statutes of armour in the reign of King James I.; after which, when King Charles I. had, during his northern expeditions, issued commissions of lieutenancy, and exerted some military powers which, having been long exercised, were thought to belong to the crown, it became a question in the long parliament, how far the power of the militia did inherently reside in the king; being now unsupported by any statute, and founded only upon immemorial usage. This question, long agitated with great heat and resentment on both sides, became at length the immediate cause of the fatal rupture between the king and his parliament: the two houses not only denying this prerogative of the crown, the legality of which claim perhaps might be somewhat doubtful; but also seizing into their hands the entire power of the militia, the illegality of which step could never be any doubt at all.

Soon after the restoration of King Charles II., when the military tenures were abolished, it was thought proper to ascertain the power of the militia, to recognize the sole right of the crown to govern and command them, and to put the whole into a more regular method of military subordination: and the order in which the militia now stands by law, is principally built upon the statutes which were then enacted. It is true, the two last of them are apparently repealed; but many of their provisions provisions are re-enacted, with the addition of some new regulations, by the present militia laws; the general scheme of which is to discipline a certain number of the inhabitants of every county, chosen by lot for three years, and officered by the lord lieutenant, the deputy lieutenants, and other principal landholders, under a commission from the crown. They are not compellable to march out of their counties, unless in case of invasion or actual rebellion, nor in any case compellable to march out of the kingdom. They are to be exercised at stated times: and their discipline in general is liberal and easy; but, when drawn out into actual service, they are subject to the rigours of martial law, as necessary to keep them in order. This is the constitutional security which our laws have provided for the public peace, and for protecting the realm against foreign or domestic violence; and which the statutes declare as essentially necessary to the safety and prosperity of the kingdom.

When the nation was engaged in war, more veteran troops and more regular discipline were deemed to be necessary, than could be expected from a mere militia; and therefore at such times more rigorous methods were put in use for the raising of armies and the due regulation and discipline of the soldiery, which are to be looked upon only as temporary excrescences bred out of the dillemper of the state, and not as any part of the permanent and perpetual laws of the kingdom. For martial law, which is built upon no settled principles, but is entirely arbitrary in its decisions, is, as Sir Matthew Hale observes, in truth and reality no law, but something indulged rather than allowed as a law. The necessity of order and discipline in an army is the only thing which can give it countenance; and therefore it ought not to be permitted in time of peace, when the king's courts are open for all persons to receive justice according to the laws of the land. Wherefore, Thomas earl of Lancaster being convicted at Pontefract, Edward II. by martial law, his attainder was reversed Edward III. because it was done in time of peace. And it is laid down, that if a lieutenant, or other, that hath commission of martial authority, doth in time of peace hang or otherwise execute any man by colour of martial law, this is murder; for it is against magna charta. And the petition of right enacts, that no soldier shall be quartered on the subject without his own consent; and that no commission shall issue to proceed within this land according to martial law. And whereas, after the Restoration, King Charles II. kept up about 5000 regular troops, by his own authority, for guards and garrisons, which King James II. by degrees increased to no less than 30,000, all paid from his own civil list; it was made one of the articles of the bill of rights, that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law.

But as the fashion of keeping standing armies (which was first introduced by Charles VII. in France 1445) has of late years universally prevailed over Europe (though some of its potentates, being unable themselves to maintain them, are obliged to have recourse to richer powers, and receive subsidiary pensions for that purpose), it has also for many years past been annually judged necessary by our legislature for the safety of the kingdom, the defence of the possessions of the crown of Great Britain, and the preservation of the balance of power in Europe, to maintain even in time of peace a standing body of troops, under the command of the crown; who are however ipso facto disbanded at the expiration of every year, unless continued by parliament. And it was enacted by statute 12 William III. c. 1. that not more than 12,000 regular forces should be kept on foot in Ireland, though paid at the charge of that kingdom: which permission is extended by statute 8 Geo. III. c. 13. to 16,235 men in time of peace.

To prevent the executive power from being able to oppress, says Baron Montesquieu, it is requisite that the armies with which it is intrusted should consist of the people, and have the same spirit with the people: as was the case at Rome, till Marius new-modelled the legions by enlisting the rabble of Italy, and laid the foundation of all the military tyranny that ensued. Nothing then, according to these principles, ought to be more guarded against in a free state, than making the military power, when such a one is necessary to be kept on foot, a body too distinct from the people. Like ours, therefore, it should wholly be composed of natural subjects; it ought only to be enlisted for a short and limited time; the soldiers also should live intermixed with the people; no separate camp, no barracks, no inland fortresses should be allowed. And perhaps it might be still better, if, by dismissing a fixed number, and enlisting others at every renewal of their term, a circulation could be kept up between the army and the people, and the citizen and the soldier be more intimately connected together.

To keep this body of troops in order, an annual act of parliament likewise passes, "to punish mutiny and defection, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters." This regulates the manner in which they are to be dispersed among the several inn-keepers and victuallers throughout the kingdom; and establishes a law-martial for their government. By this, among other things, it is enacted, that if any officer or soldier shall excite, or join any mutiny, or, knowing of it, shall not give notice to the commanding officer, or shall desert, or lift in any other regiment, or flag upon his post, or leave it before he is relieved, or hold correspondence with a rebel or enemy, or strike or use violence to his superior officer, or shall disobey his lawful commands; such offender shall suffer such punishment as a court martial shall inflict, though it extend to death itself.

However expedient the most strict regulations may be in time of actual war, yet in times of profound peace, a little relaxation of military rigour would not, one should hope, be productive of much inconvenience. And, upon this principle, though by our standing laws (still remaining in force, though not attended to) defection in time of war is made felony without benefit of clergy, and the offence is triable by a jury, and before the judges of the common law; yet, by our militia laws before mentioned, a much lighter punishment is inflicted for defection in time of peace. So, by the Roman law also, defection in time of war was punished with death, but more mildly in time of tranquillity. But our mutiny act makes no such distinction: for any of the faults above mentioned are, equally at all times, punishable with death itself, if a court martial shall think proper. This discretionary power of Military. The court martial is indeed to be guided by the directions of the crown; which, with regard to military offences, has almost an absolute legislative power. "His Majesty (lays the act) may form articles of war, and constitute courts martial, with power to try any crime by such articles, and inflict such penalties as the articles direct." A vast and most important truth! an unlimited power to create crimes, and annex to them any punishments not extending to life or limb! These are indeed forbidden to be inflicted, except for crimes declared to be so punishable by this act; which crimes we have just enumerated, and among which, we may observe, that any disobedience to lawful commands is one. Perhaps in some future revision of this act, which is in many respects hastily penned, it may be thought worthy the wisdom of parliament to ascertain the limits of military subjection, and to enact express articles of war for the government of the army, as is done for the government of the navy; especially as, by our present constitution, the nobility and gentry of the kingdom, who serve their country as militia officers, are annually subjected to the same arbitrary rule during their time of exercise.

One of the greatest advantages of our law is, that not only the crimes themselves which it punishes, but also the penalties which it inflicts, are ascertained and notorious: nothing is left to arbitrary discretion: the king by his judges dispenses what the law has previously ordained, but is not himself the legislator. How much, therefore, is it to be regretted, that a set of men, whose bravery has often preserved the liberties of their country, should be reduced to a state of servitude in the midst of a nation of freemen? for Sir Edward Coke will inform us, that it is one of the genuine marks of servitude, to have the law, which is our rule of action, either concealed or precarious; *Misera est servitus, ubi jus est vagum aut incognitum.* Nor is this state of servitude quite consistent with the maxims of sound policy observed by other free nations. For the greater the general liberty is which any state enjoys, the more cautious has it usually been in introducing slavery in any particular order or profession. These men, as Baron Montesquieu observes, seeing the liberty which others possess, and which they themselves are excluded from, are apt (like eunuchs in the eastern feraglions) to live in a state of perpetual envy and hatred towards the rest of the community, and indulge a malignant pleasure in contributing to destroy those privileges to which they can never be admitted. Hence have many free states, by departing from this rule, been endangered by the revolt of their slaves; while, in absolute and despotic governments, where no real liberty exists, and consequently no injurious comparisons can be formed, such incidents are extremely rare. Two precautions are therefore advised to be observed in all prudent and free governments: 1. To prevent the introduction of slavery at all; or, 2. If it be already introduced, not to intrust those slaves with arms, who will then find themselves an overmatch for the freemen. Much less ought the soldiery to be an exception to the people in general, and the only state of servitude in the nation.

But as soldiers, by this annual act, are thus put in a worse condition than any other subjects; so, by the humanity of our standing laws, they are in some cases put in a much better. By statute 43 Eliz. c. 3, a Military weekly allowance is to be raised in every county for the relief of soldiers that are sick, hurt, and maimed: not forgetting the royal hospital at Chelsea for such as are worn out in their duty. Officers and soldiers, that have been in the king's service, are by several statutes, enacted at the close of several wars, at liberty to use any trade or occupation they are fit for, in any town in the kingdom (except the two universities), notwithstanding any statute, custom, or charter to the contrary. And soldiers in actual military service may make nuncupative wills, and dispose of their goods, wages, and other personal chattels, without these forms, solemnities, and expenses, which the law requires in other cases. Our law does not indeed extend this privilege so far as the civil law, which carried it to an extreme that borders upon the ridiculous: for if a soldier, in the article of death, wrote anything in bloody letters on his shield, or in the dust of the field with his sword, it was a very good military testament.

**Military Court.** See Chivalry, Court of.

**Military Tenures.** See Tenure, Feudal System, and Knight.

**Military Ways,** (viae militares), are the large Roman roads which Agrippa procured to be made through the empire in the time of Augustus, for the more convenient marching of troops and conveyance of carriages. N. Bergier has written the history of the origin, progress, and amazing extent, of these military roads, which were paved from the gates of Rome to the extreme parts of the empire. See Way.

**Militia,** in general, denotes the body of soldiers, or those who make profession of arms.

In a more restrained sense, militia denotes the trained bands of a town or country, who arm themselves, upon a short warning, for their own defence. So that, in this sense, militia is opposed to regular or stated troops. See Military State, and Feudal System.

**Milium, millet,** a genus of plants, belonging to the triandra class; and in the natural method ranking under the 4th order, Graminae. See Botany Index.

**Milk,** a well known fluid, prepared by nature in the breasts of women, and the udders of other animals, for the nourishment of their young.—According to Dr Cullen *, milk is a connecting and intermediate substance between animals and vegetables. It seems Mat. Med. immediately to be secreted from the chyle, both being a white liquor of the same consistence: it is most copiously secreted after meals, and of an acetic nature. In most animals who live on vegetables, the milk is acetic; and it is uncertain, though at the same time no observation proves the contrary, whether it is not so likewise in carnivorous animals. But, whatever be in this, it is certain, that the milk of all animals who live on vegetables is acetic. Milk being derived from the chyle, we thence conclude its vegetable nature; for in those who live on both promiscuously, more milk is got, and more quickly, from the vegetable than the animal food. Milk, however, is not purely vegetable; though we have a vegetable liquor that resembles its taste, consistence, colour, aceticity, and the separability of the oily part, viz. an emulsion of the nuces oleoide and farnaceose substances. But these want the coagulable part of milk, which seems to be of animal nature, approaching to that of the coagulable lymph of the blood. Milk, then, seems to be of an intermediate nature, between chyle taken up from the intestines and the fully elaborated animal fluid.

Its contents are of three kinds: 1st, An oily part, which, whatever may be said concerning the origin of other oils in the body, is certainly immediately derived from the oil of the vegetables taken in; as with these it agrees very exactly in its nature, and would entirely, if we could separate it fully from the coagulable part. Another mark of their agreement is the separability, which proves that the mixture has been lately attempted, but not fully performed. 2dly, Besides this oily, there is a proper coagulable part: And, 3dly, Much water accompanies both, in which there is dissolved a saline saccharine substance. These three can be got separate in cheese, butter, and whey; but never perfectly so, a part of each being always blended with every other part.

Nothing is more common, from what has been said of its immediate nature, than to suppose that it requires no assimilation; and hence has been deduced the reason of its exhibition in the most weakly state of the human body. But wherever we can examine milk, we always find that it coagulates, suffers a decomposition, and becomes acetic. Again, Infants, who feed entirely on milk, are always troubled with eruptions, which every body observes are not of the same quality with the food taken; and therefore it appears, that, like all other food, milk turns naturally acetic in the stomach, and only enters the chyle and blood in consequence of a new recomposition. It approaches then to the nature of vegetable aliment, but is not capable of its noxious venous fermentation, and therefore has an advantage over it; neither from this quality, like animal food, is it heating in the stomach, and productive of fever; though at the same time, from its quantity of coagulable matter, it is more nourishing than vegetables.

Milk is the food most universally fitted to all ages and states of the body; but it seems chiefly designed by nature as the food of infants. When animals are in the fetus state, their solids are a perfect jelly, incapable of an assimilatory power. In such state nature has perfectly assimilated food, as the albumen ovi in the oviparous, and in the viviparous animals certainly somewhat of the same kind, as it was necessary the vessels should be filled with such a fluid as would make way for an after assimilation. When the infant has attained a considerable degree of firmness, as when it is separated from the mother, yet such a degree of weakness still remains as makes somewhat of the same indication necessary; it behoves the infant to have an alkaline food ready prepared, and at the same time its noxious tendency to be avoided. Milk then is given, which is alkaline, and, at the same time, has a sufficient quantity of acidity to correct that alkalinity. As the body advances in growth, and the alkaline tendency is greater, the animal, to obviate that tendency, is led to take vegetable food, as more suited to its strength of assimilation.

Dr Cullen observes, that milk is suited to almost all temperaments; and it is even so to stomachs disposed to aceticity, more than those substances which have undergone the venous fermentation; nay, it even cures the heartburn, checks venous fermentation, and precipitates the lees, when, by renewal of fermentation, the wine happens to be fouled. It therefore very properly accompanies a great deal of vegetable aliment; although sometimes its aceticity is troublesome, either from a large proportion taken in, or from the degree of it; for, according to certain unaccountable circumstances, different acids are formed in the stomach in different states of the body; in a healthy body, e.g., a mild one; in the hypochondriac disease sometimes, one of a very acid quality. When the acidity of milk is carried to a great degree, it may prove remarkably refrigerant, and occasion cold crudities, and the recurrence of intermittent fevers. To take the common notion of its passing unchanged into the blood, it can suffer no solution. But if we admit its coagulum in the stomach, then it may be reckoned among soluble or insoluble foods, according as that coagulum is more or less tenacious. Formerly rennet, which is employed to coagulate milk, was thought an acid; but, from late observations, it appears, that, if it be an acid, it is very different from other acids, and that its coagulum is stronger than that produced by acids. It has been imagined, that a rennet is to be found in the stomachs of all animals, which causes coagulation of milk; but according to Dr Cullen the coagulation of milk seems to be owing to a weak acid in the stomach, the relics of our vegetable food, inducing, in healthy persons, a weak and soluble coagulum; but in different stomachs this may be very different, in these becoming heavy and less soluble food, and sometimes even evacuated in a coagulated undissolved state both by stomach and stool.

As milk is acetic, it may be rendered sometimes purgative by mixing with the bile; and some examples of this have been remarked. More commonly, however, it is reckoned among those foods which occasion coition.

Hoffman, in his experiments on milk, found that all kinds of it contained much water; and when this was distilled, found the residues very different in their solubility. But we must not thence conclude, that the same insolubility takes place in the stomach; for extracts made from vegetables with water are often very insoluble substances, and hardly diffusible through water itself; therefore, in Hoffman's extracts, if we may so call them, of milk, somewhat of the same kind might have appeared; and these substances, which in their natural state were not so, might appear very insoluble. However, we may allow that milk is always somehow insoluble in the intestines, as it is of a drying nature, and as cheese, &c. is very coitive. And this effect shows that milk is always coagulated in the stomach; for if it remained fluid, no feces would be produced, whereas sometimes very hard ones are observed. In the blood vessels, from its animal nature, it may be considered as nutritious; but when we consider its vegetable contents, and aceticity in the prime view, we find that, like animal food, it does not excite that degree of fever in the time of digestion, and that from its aceticity it will resist putrefaction. Hence its use in hectic fevers, which, whatever be their cause, appear appear only to be exacerbations of natural feverish paroxysms, which occur twice every day, commonly after meals, and at night. To obviate these, therefore, we give such an aliment as produces the least exacerbation of these fevers; and of this nature is milk, on account of its acidulent vegetable nature.

There appears also somewhat peculiar to milk, which requires only a small exertion of the animal powers in order to its assimilation; and besides, in hectic complaints there is wanted an oily, bland food, approaching to the animal nature; so that on all these accounts milk is a diet peculiarly adapted to them, and, in general, to most convalescents, and to those of inflammatory temperaments. So far of milk in general. We shall now speak of the particular kinds which are in common use.

The milks of women, mares, and asses, agree very much in their qualities, being very dilute, having little solid contents, and, when evaporated to dryness, having these very soluble, containing much saccharine matter, of a very ready acidulence, and, when coagulated, their coagulum being tender and easily broken down. From this view they have less oil, and seem to have less coagulable matter than the rest.

The milks of cows, sheep, and goats, agree in opposite qualities to the three just mentioned; but here there is somewhat more of gradation. Cows' milk comes nearest to the former milk: goats' milk is less fluid, less sweet, less glutinous, has the largest proportion of insoluble part after coagulation, and indeed the largest proportion of coagulable part; its oily and coagulable parts are not spontaneously separable, never throwing out a cream, or allowing butter to be readily extracted from it. Hence the virtues of these milks are obvious, being more nourishing, though at the same time less easily soluble in weak stomachs, than the three first, less acidulent than thefe, and so more rarely laxative, and peculiarly fitted for the diet of convalescents without fever. The three first again are less nourishing, more soluble, more laxative, as more acidulent, and adapted to the convalescents with fever.

These qualities, in particular milks, are considerably diversified by different circumstances. First, Different animals, living on the same diet, give a considerably different milk; for there seems to be something in the constitution, abstracting from the aliment, which constitutes a considerable diversity of milk, not only in the same species of animals, but also in the same animal, at different ages, and at different distances after delivery: this applies to the choice of nurses. Secondly, Milk follows the nature of the aliment more than any other juice in the human body, being more or less fluid and dilute, more or less solid and nourishing, in proportion as these qualities are more or less in the aliment. The nature of the aliment differs according to its time of growth, e.g., old grazes being always found more nourishing than young. Aliment, too, is always varied according to the season, as that is warm or dry, moist or cloudy.

The milk of each particular kind of animal is fitter for particular purposes, when fed on proper food. Thus the cow delights in the succulent herbage of the vale: if the sheep be fed there he certainly rots, but on the higher and more dry side of the mountain he feeds pleasantly and healthy; while the goat never flops near the bottom, but ascends to the craggy summit; and certainly the milks of these animals are always best on their proper soil, and that of goats is best on a mountainous country. From a dissertation of Linnaeus, we have many observations concerning the diversity of plants on which each animal chooses to feed. All the Swedish plants which could be collected together, were presented alternately to domestic animals, and then it appeared that the goat lived on the greatest variety, and even on many which were poisonous to the rest; that the cow chose the first succulent shoots of the plant, and neglected the fructification; which last was preferred by the goat. Hence may be deduced rules concerning the pasturage of different animals; e.g., Farmers find, that, in a pasture which was only fit to feed a certain number of sheep, an equal number of goats may be introduced, while the sheep are no less nourished than before.

It is not easy to assign the difference between milk fresh drawn and that detained in the open air for some time: but certainly there is some material one, otherwise nature universally would not have directed infants to sucking; and indeed it seems, better than the other, fitted for digestion and nourishment. Physicians have supposed that this depended on the evaporation of some sputum: but our author cannot conceive any such, except common water here; and besides, these volatile parts can hardly be nutritious. A more plausible account seems deducible from mixture: milk new drawn has been but lately mixed, and is exposed to spontaneous separation, a circumstance hurtful to digestion; none of the parts being, by themselves, so easily assimilated as when they are all taken together. Hence, then, milk new drawn is more intimately blended, and therefore then is most proper to the weakly and infants.

Another difference in the use of milk exposed for some time to the air, is taking it boiled or unboiled. Physicians have generally recommended the former; but the reason is not easily assigned. Perhaps it is this: Milk kept for some time exposed to the air has gone so far to a spontaneous separation; whereas the heat thoroughly blends the whole, and hence its solution is not so easy in the stomach; and thus boiled milk is more cohesive than raw, and gives more faeces. Again, When milk is boiled, a considerable quantity of air is detached, as appears from the froth on the surface; and air is the chief instrument of fermentation in bodies; so that after this process it is not liable to acidulence: for these reasons it is proper for the robust and vigorous.

Another difference of milk is, according as it is fluid or coagulated. The coagulated is of two kinds, as induced by rennet, or the natural acidulence of the milk. The former preparation makes the firmer and less easily soluble coagulum; though, when taken with the whey unseparated, it is less difficult of solution, though more so than any other coagulum in the same case. Many nations use the latter form, which is easier soluble, but very much acidulent, and therefore, in point of solution, should be confined to the vigorous, in point of acidulence, to those who like an acidulent food; and in the last case, the Laplanders use it as their chief acidulent. Milk.

Milkecent condiment. From the same considerations it is more cooling, and in its other effects like all other milkecent vegetables.

Milk by evaporation yields a sweet saline matter, of which Dr Lewis gives the following proportion:

| Twelve ounces of | Left of dry matter | From which water extracted a sweet saline substance amounting to | |-----------------|--------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | Cows milk | 13 drachms | 1½ drachms | | Goats milk | 12½ | 1½ | | Human milk | 8 | 6 | | Asses milk | 8 | 6 |

The saline substance extracted from asses milk was white, and sweet as sugar; those of the others brown or yellow, and considerably less sweet; so that cows milk had the least sweetness of any.

On distilling 12 quarts of milk in balneo mariae, at least nine quarts of pure phlegm were obtained; the liquor which afterwards arose was acidulous, and by degrees grew feebly more and more acid as the distillation was continued. After this came over a little spirit, and at last, an empyreumatic oil. The remaining solid matter adhered to the bottom of the retort, in the form of elegant shining black flowers, which being calcined and eluated yielded a portion of fixed alkaline salt.

Milk set in a warm place, throws up to the surface an unctuous cream, from which, by agitation, the butter is easily separated. The addition of alkaline salts prevents this separation, not (as some have supposed) by absorbing an acid from the milk, but by virtue of their property of intimately uniting oily bodies with watery liquors. Sugar, another grand intermediate between oils and water, has this effect in a greater degree, though that concrete is by no means alkaline, or an absorbent of acids.

The sweet saccharine part of the milk remains dissolved in the whey after the separation of the curd or cheesy matter, and may be collected from it in a white crystalline form, by boiling the whey till all remains of the curdled substance have fallen to the bottom; then filtering, evaporating it to a due consistence, letting it to shoot, and purifying the crystals by solution in water and a second crystallization. Much has been said of the medicinal virtues of this sugar of milk, but it does not seem to have any considerable ones; it is from cows milk that it has been generally prepared; and the crystals obtained from this kind of milk have but little sweetness.

When milk is suffered to coagulate spontaneously, the whey proves acid, and on standing grows more and more so till the putrefactive state commences. Sour whey is used as an acid, preferably to the directly vegetable or the mineral acids, in some of the chemical arts; as for dissolving iron in order to the staining of linen and leather. This acid was commonly made use of in the bleaching of linen, for dissolving and extracting the earthy particles left in the cloth by the alkaline salts and lime employed for cleansing and whitening it. Butter milk is preferred to plain sour milk or four whey: This last is supposed to give the cloth a yellow colour. Dr Home, in his ingenious treatise on this subject, recommends water acidulated with sulphuric acid (in the proportion of about half an ounce, or at most three quarters of an ounce, to a gallon), as preferable in many respects to the acid of milk, or of the more directly vegetable substances.

He observes, that the latter are often difficulty procurable, abound with oleaginous particles, and haleen to corruption; whilst the vitriolic acid is cheap, and pure, and disposed to putrefy: That milk takes five days to perform its office, whilst the vitriolic acid does it in as many hours, perhaps in as many minutes: That this acid contributes also to whiten the cloth, and does not make it weaker though the cloth be kept in it for months. He finds, that acids as well as alkalies, extract an oily matter from the cloth, and lose their acidity and alkalinity. Since this treatise appeared, the use of four milk is very generally superseded by oil of vitriol.

It is observable, that asses milk is greatly disposed, on standing for a little time, to become thick and ropy. In the Bredlaw collection for the year 1729, there is a remarkable account of milk (which probably was that of the ass) grown so thick and tenacious as to be drawn out into long strings, which, when dried, were quite brittle.

New cows milk, suffered to stand for some days on the leaves of butterwort or sun-dew, becomes uniformly thick, slippery, and coherent, and of an agreeable sweet taste, without any separation of its parts. Fresh milk, added to this, is thickened in the same manner, and this successively. In some parts of Sweden, as we are informed in the Swedish Memoirs, milk is thus prepared for food.

New milk has a degree of glutinous quality, so as to be used for joining broken stone ware. There is a far greater tenacity in cheese properly prepared.

Milk, when examined by a microscope, appears composed of numerous globules swimming in a transparent fluid. It boils in nearly the same degree of heat with common water; some sorts rather sooner, and some a little later: after boiling, it is less disposed to grow sour than in its natural state. It is coagulated by acids both mineral and vegetable, and by alkalies both fixed and volatile. The coagulum made by acids falls to the bottom of the serum; that made by alkalies swims on the surface, commonly forming (especially with volatile alkalies) a thick coriaceous skin. The serum, with alkalies, proves green or fainous; with acids, it differs little in appearance from the whey that separates spontaneously. The coagulum formed by acids is dissolved by alkalies, and that formed by alkalies is redissolved by acids; but the milk does not in either case resume its original properties. It is coagulated by most of the middle salts, whose basis is an earth or a metallic body; as solution of alum, fixed sal ammoniac, sugar of lead, green and blue vitriol; but not by the chalybeate or purging mineral waters, nor by the bitter salt extracted from the purging waters. Among the neutral salts that have been tried, there is not one that produces any coagulation. They all dilute the milk, and make it less disposed to coagulate with acids or alkalies: Nitre seems to have this effect in a greater degree than the other neutral salts. It is instantly coagulated by highly rectified Milk rectified spirit of wine, but scarcely by a phlegmatic spirit. It does not mingle with expressed oils. All the coagula are diffused by gall.

It has generally been supposed by medical authors, that the milk of animals is of the same nature with chyle, and that the human milk always coagulates in the stomach of infants; but in a late dissertation upon the subject by Mr Clarke, member of the Royal Irish Academy, we find both these positions controverted. According to him, women's milk, in a healthy state, contains no coagulable, mucilaginous, or cheesy principle, in its composition; or it contains so little, that it cannot admit of any sensible proof. Dr Rutty states, that it does not afford even a fifth part of the curd which is yielded by cows' milk; and Dr Young denies that it is at all coagulable either by rennets or acids. This is confirmed by Dr Ferris, who in 1782 gained the Harveian prize medal at Edinburgh by a dissertation upon milk. Mr Clarke informs us, that he has made a vast number of experiments upon women's milk with a view to determine this point. He made use of ardent spirits, all the different acids, infusions of infants' stomachs, and procured the milk of a great many different women; but in no instance, excepting one or two, did he perceive anything like curd. This took place in consequence of a spontaneous acetylation; and only a small quantity of soft flaky matter was formed, which floated in the serum. This he looked upon to be a morbid appearance.

The general opinion that women's milk is coagulable has arisen from a single circumstance, viz., that infants frequently vomit the milk they suck in a state of apparent coagulation. This greatly perplexed Dr Young; who, after having tried in vain to coagulate human milk artificially, concluded, that the process took place spontaneously in the stomach; and that it would always do so if the milk were allowed to remain in a degree of heat equal to about 96 degrees of Fahrenheit. Mr Clarke took equal quantities of three different kinds of milk, and put them into bottles slightly corked, and these bottles into water, the temperature of which was kept up by a spirit of wine lamp as near as possible to 96° of Fahrenheit: but after frequently examining each bottle during the course of the experiment, at the expiration of several hours there was not the smallest tendency towards coagulation to be perceived in any of them; the cream was only thrown to the surface in a thick and adhesive form, and entirely separated from the fluid below, which had something of a gray and wheyish appearance. As the matter vomited by infants is sometimes more adhesive than we can suppose cream to be, Mr Clarke supposed that the curd might be so entangled with the cream, as to be with difficulty separated from it; but having collected a quantity of rich cream from the milk of different women, he repeated the experiment with precisely the same event, not being able in any one instance to produce the smallest quantity of curd. To determine, however, what effects might be produced upon milk by the stomach of an infant, Mr Clarke made the following experiment: Having taken out the stomach of a fetus which had been deprived of life by the use of instruments, he infused it in a small quantity of hot water, so as to make a strong infusion. He added a tea-spoonful of this infusion to equal quantities of cows and human milk; the consequence of which was, that the cow's milk was firmly coagulated in a short time, but the human milk was not altered in the least; neither was the least coagulation produced by adding a second and third spoonful to the human milk. "Upon the whole, then, (says Mr Clarke), I am persuaded it will be found, that human milk, in a healthy state, contains little or no curd, and that the general opinion of its nature and properties is founded upon fallacious analogy and superficial observations made on the matter vomited by infants. We may presume, that the cream of women's milk, by its inferior specific gravity, will float on the surface of the contents of the stomach; and being of an oily nature, that it will be of more difficult digestion than any other constituent part of milk. When an infant then sucks very plentifully, so as to over-fill the stomach, or labours under any weakness in the powers of digestion, it cannot appear unreasonable to suppose, that the cream shall be first rejected by vomiting. Analogous to this, we know that adults affected with dyspepsia often bring up greasy fluids from the stomach by eructation, and this especially after eating fat meat. We have, in some instances, known this to blaze when thrown into the fire like spirit of wine or oil."

Our author derives a confirmation of his opinion from the following observation, viz., that curds vomited by infants of a few days old are yellow, while they become white in a fortnight or three weeks. This he accounts for from the yellow colour of the cream thrown up by the milk of women during the first four or five days after delivery.

Mr Clarke likewise contends that common opinion of the human milk being so prone to acidity, that a great number of the diseases of children are to be accounted for from that principle. "Whoever (says he) takes the trouble of attentively comparing human milk with that of ruminant animals, will soon find it to be much less prone to run into the acetic acid process. I have very often exposed equal quantities of human and cows' milk in degrees of temperature, varying from the common summer heat, or 65°, to 100°; and I have constantly found that cows' milk acquires a greater degree of acidity in 36 hours than the human did in many days: cows' milk becomes offensively putrid in four or five days; a change which healthy human milk, exposed in the same manner, will not undergo in many weeks, nay, sometimes in many months. I once kept a few ounces of a nurse's milk, delivered about six or seven days, for more than two years in a bottle moderately corked. It stood on the chimney-piece, and was frequently opened to be examined. At the end of this period it showed evident marks of moderate acidity, whether examined by the taste, smell, or paper stained with vegetable blues or purples; the latter it changed to a florid red colour, whereas cows' milk kept a few days changed the colour of the same paper to a green, thereby clearly showing its putrefactive tendency."

Our author next goes on to consider of the probability there is of milk becoming so frequently and strongly acid as to occasion most of the diseases of infants. He begins with an attempt to show that the phenomena commonly looked upon to be indications of acrimony are by no means certain. Curdled milk... has already been shown to be no sign of acidity; and the other appearance, which has commonly been thought to be so certain, viz. green faeces, is, in the opinion of Mr Clarke, equally fallacious. In support of this he quotes a letter from Dr Sydenham to Dr Cole; in which he says, that the green matter vomited by hysterical women is not any proof of acid humours being the cause of that disease, for few sick people do the same. The opinion of green faeces being an effect of acidity, proceeds upon the supposition that a mixture of bile with an acid produces a green colour; but it is found, that the vegetable acid, which only can exist in the human body, is unable to produce this change of co- lour, though it can be effected by the strong mineral acids. As nothing equivalent to any of these acids can be supposed to exist in the bowels of infants, we must therefore take some other method of accounting for the green faeces frequently evacuated by them. "Why should four milk, granting its existence, give rise to them in infants and not in adults? Have butter milk, summer fruits of the most acetic kind, lemon or orange juice, always this effect in adults by their admixture with bile? This is a question which, I believe, cannot be answered in the affirmative."

On the whole, Dr Clarke considers the disease of aci- dity in the bowels, though so frequently mentioned, to be by no means common. He owns indeed, that it may sometimes occur in infancy as well as in adults, from weakness of the stomach, colic, or improper food; and an indubitable evidence is afforded by faeces which stain the blue or purple colour of vegetables to a red, though nothing can be inferred with certainty from the colour or smell.

The doctor next proceeds to state several reasons for his opinion, that the greater number of infantile diseases are not owing to acidity; 1. Women's milk in a healthy state contains little or no coagulable matter or curd. 2. It shows less tendency out of the body to become acetic than many other kinds of milk. 3. The appearances which have been generally supposed to characterize its acidity do not afford satis- factory evidence of such a morbid cause. 4. Granting this to be the case, we have plenty of mild absorbents, capable of destroying all the acid which can be suppos- ed to be generated in the bowels of an infant; yet many children are observed to die in consequence of these diseases supposed to arise from acidity. 5. Though the milk of all ruminant animals is of a much more acetic nature than that of the human species, yet the young of these animals never suffer anything like the diseases attributed to acidity in infants. 6. His- tory informs us that whole nations use sour curdled milk as a considerable part of their food, without feel- ing any inconvenience, which, however, must have been the case, if acidity in the stomach were pro- ductive of such deleterious effect as has been sup- posed.

The reasoning of Dr Clarke seems here to be very plausible, and nothing has as yet been offered to con- tradict it. The reviewers in taking notice of the trea- tise only observe, that the doctor's positions are sup- ported by great probability; yet "they have seen them, or think they have seen them, contradicted by the appearance of diseases and the effects of medi- cines;" so that they must leave the subject to farther examination.

In a memoir by Messrs Parmentier and Deyeux, members of the royal college of pharmacy, &c., in Pa- ris, we have a great number of experiments on the milk of asses, cows, goats, sheep, and mares, as well as women. The experiments on cows milk, were made with a view to determine whether any change was made in the milk by the different kinds of food eaten by the animal. For this purpose some were fed with the leaves of maize or Turkey wheat; some with cab- bage; others with small potatoes; and others with common grass. The milk of those fed with the maize or Turkey wheat was extremely sweet; that from the potatoes and common grass much more ferous and in- fusible; and that from the cabbages the most disagreeable of all. By distillation only eight ounces of a colour- less fluid were obtained from as many pounds of each of these milks; which from those who fed upon grass had an aromatic flavour; a disagreeable one from cab- bage; and none at all from the potatoes and Turkey wheat. This liquid became fetid in the space of a month, whatever substance the animal had been fed with, acquiring at the same time a viscidity and be- coming turbid; that from cabbage generally, but not al- ways, becoming first putrid. All of them separated a filamentous matter, and became clear on being exposed to the heat of 25° of Reaumur's thermometer. In the residues of the distillation no difference whatever could be perceived. As the only difference therefore existing in cows milk lies in the volatile part, our au- thors conclude, that it is improper to boil milk either for common or medicinal purposes. They observed al- so that any sudden change of food, even from a worse to a better kind was attended by a very remarkable di- minution in the quantity of milk. All the residues of the distillations yielded, in a strong fire, a yellow oil and acid, a thick and black empyreumatic oil, a volatile alkali, and towards the end a quantity of inflammable air, and at last a coal remained containing some fixed alkali with muriatic acid.

On agitating in long bottles the creams from the milk of cows fed with different substances, all of them were formed into a kind of half-made butter; of which that formed from the milk from maize was white, firm, and infusible; that from potatoes was softer and more pinguedinous; but that from common grass was the best of all. Cabbage, as in other cases, gave a strong taste.

In the course of their experiments, it was endeavoured to determine whether butter is actually contained in the cream, or whether it be a chemical production of the operation of churning. They could not find any reason absolutely satisfactory on either side, but incline to the latter opinion; because when cream is allowed to remain among the milk, and the whole curdled promi- nently, only fat cheese, without any butter, is pro- duced. The oily parts cannot be separated into butter ei- ther by acids or any other means than churning; even the artificial mixture of oil with the cream is insufficient for the purpose.

The serum of milk was reduced by filtration to a clear and pellucid liquor; and, by mixture with fixed alkali, deposited a portion of cheesy matter which had been dissolved in the whey. The sugar of milk was also found in this liquor.

In their experiments upon the milk of various animals, it was found that the milk of asses yielded by distillation an infipid liquor, and deposited a liquor similar to the lymph of cows milk. It is coagulated by all the acids, but not into an uniform mass; exhibiting only the appearance of distinct flocculi. It affords but little cream, which is converted with difficulty into a soft butter that soon becomes rancid. It has but a small quantity of saccharine particles, and these are often mixed with muriatic selenite and common salt. Goats milk has a thick cream, and agreeable to the taste; and the milk itself may be preserved longer in a sound state than any other species, the scum on its surface being naturally convertible into palatable cheese. It is easily made into firm butter, which does not soon become rancid, and has a good flavour. The butter milk contains a large quantity of cheesy matter, which readily coagulates; but has still less saccharine matter than that of asses. Sheep's milk can scarcely be distinguished from that of a cow, and easily parts with its cream by standing. It is of a yellow colour, an agreeable flavour, and yields a great proportion of butter; but this is not solid, and soon becomes rancid. Mares milk is the most infipid and least nutritious of any; notwithstanding which it has been much recommended for weak and consumptive patients: in which cases it is probable that it proves efficacious by being more consonant than any other to the debilitated powers of digestion. It boils with a smaller fire than any other kind of milk, is easily coagulated, and the distilled water does not soon change its nature. It has but a small quantity of cheesy matter, and very few oily particles; the cream cannot be made into butter; and the whey contains about as much sugar as cows or goats milk.

In this memoir our authors remark, that in order to augment the quantity, as well as to improve the quality, of the milk of animals, they should be well fed, their tails kept clean, and their litter frequently renewed: they should be milked at stated hours, but not drained: great attention should also be paid to the breed; because inferior cattle are maintained at as great expense as the most valuable kinds. No change ought to be made in the food; though if the milk be employed for medicinal purposes, it may be improved by a proper mixture of herbs, &c.

In their experiments on women's milk, Messrs Parentier and Deyeux differ somewhat from Dr Clarke. They first tried the milk of a woman who had been delivered four months; and observed, that after the cream had been separated the other part appeared of a more perfect white, and that it could not be coagulated either by vinegar or mineral acids; which they attributed to a superabundance of serum. But they found that in proportion to the age of the milk it was found to be more easily coagulable; and this was confirmed by experiments made upon the milk of 20 nurses. Its coagulability was not increased by heat. The cream, by agitation, formed a viscid unctuous matter, but could not be changed into perfect butter; but they found that it was extremely difficult to determine the proportions of the various component parts in human milk, as it differs remarkably, not only in different subjects, but in the same subject at different times. In a nurse aged about 32 years, who was extremely subject to nervous affections, the milk was one day found almost quite colourless and transparent. In two hours after, a second quantity drawn from the breast was viscid like the white of an egg. It became whiter in a short time, but did not recover its natural colour before the evening. It was afterwards found that these changes were occasioned by her having some violent hysterical fits in the meantime.

Sugar of Milk. Different methods have been proposed for obtaining the sugar of milk. The following is an account of a method used by some of the Tartar nations of preserving their milk by means of frost: in which operation great quantities of the sugar of milk are accidentally formed. The account was given by Mr Fabrig of Peterburgh, who undertook a journey, by order of the academy of Peterburgh, among the Mogul tribes who inhabit the country beyond the lake Baikal, on the banks of the river Salenga. These people allow their milk to freeze in large quantity in iron kettles; and, when it is perfectly congealed, they place them over a gentle fire to soften the edges of the cake, after which it may be taken out with a wooden spatula. They commence these operations at the beginning of the cold, when they have milk in the greatest abundance; after which it may be preserved with great ease throughout the whole winter. Mr Fabrig having frequent opportunities of seeing these cakes, soon observed, that the surface of them was covered to a considerable depth with a farinaceous powder; and having established a dairy upon the same plan with those of the Moguls, he found the same thing take place with himself. This powder was extremely sweet, and he received platefuls of it from the natives, who used it in their food, and sweetened their other viands with it. Having caused a number of cakes of frozen milk to be conveyed to the top of his house, where they were directly exposed to the violent cold, he found that the separation of the saccharine powder was greatly promoted by this means. He scraped the cakes every week to the depth of two inches, and afterwards spread out the powder upon an earthen plate in order to destroy the remains of moisture which might have prevented it from keeping for any length of time. When exposed in this manner it had a very agreeable and strong saccharine taste; dissolved in warm water; and when strongly stirred by means of a chocolate stick, would at all times produce an excellent and well tasted milk. Raw milk affords a much larger quantity of this saccharine matter than such as has been boiled, or which has had the cream taken off it. Neither must the milk be suddenly exposed to the cold before it has lost its natural heat; for the sudden contact of the cold drives all the cheesy and fat part towards the middle, while the external parts consist of little else than water. In order to allow the parts of the milk to be all properly mixed together, Mr Fabrig allowed the milk when newly taken from the cows to cool, and then poured it out into shallow kettles.

Our author is of opinion that this method of making milk would be of great service to navigators to supply themselves with milk during long sea voyages: and Milk. He affirms us, from his own experience, that it will always succeed, if proper attention be paid to it. He is of opinion, however, that all countries are not equally proper for the preparation of this saccharine matter; and indeed this seems very evidently to be the case, as the process appears to be a crystallization of the saccharine parts of the milk, and a separation of them from the aqueous ones by means of extreme cold. The country in which he made the experiments is one of the most elevated in all Asia; and so cold, that, though it lies only in the 50th degree of north latitude, its rivers are frozen up for six months of the year. A very dry cold wind also prevails throughout almost the whole year; and the dry winds generally come from the north, being almost always preceded by a warm wind from the south, which blows for some time. The dry rarefied air increases the evaporation from the ice cakes, and leaves nothing but the saccharine or pure constituent parts of the milk, which with the addition of water can always recompose the fluid.