The quality of milk is a matter of paramount importance. The proportion of fat or cream in milk from the same cow will vary somewhat from day to day, but there is no doubt that the most frequent cause of variation is found in the unscrupulous methods of some dairymen. Three principal methods of adulteration are used: water is added, cream is removed, and certain chemicals are added as preservatives. Whatever form of adulteration is used, the results are bad. Whether water is added or the cream removed, the nutritive value of the milk is lessened. The injurious effects of chemically preserved milk depend, of course, on the amount consumed by one person. The drugs most frequently used as preservatives are boracic acid, borax, salicylic acid and formaldehyde. Where a life is in the balance, and milk diet is depended on to maintain the vitality, these adulterations are of tremendous importance. No housekeeper can afford to patronize a dairyman where there is a suspicion of these methods being practiced. Laws regarding adulteration exist in many places, but are not always enforced. But pure milk can be produced, and if the consumer insists on having it, and takes pains to find out at intervals the facts regarding its purity, the milk dealer will arrange to supply the genuine article. In purchasing from any dealer it is a safeguard to have the milk examined periodically by an expert chemist. Then the housekeeper may know for a certainty what she is getting. Milk which contains sediment is always suspicious. In preparing a specimen for analysis care should be taken that it is a fair sample. Milk from the top or bottom of a bottle should not be used. If the milk to be tested is poured several times from one vessel to another until no particles of cream appear on the surface, the sample may be considered to be a fair specimen of the composition of the whole. The method of computing the value of milk used by creamery experts is on the basis of the amount of fat contained. If this basis were the general standard, not only hospitals but all consumers would be the gainers. While the actual food value of milk does not entirely depend on the amount of fat, yet the buyer would have the satisfaction of getting what he paid for, and the dealer the increased return for supplying a better grade article. The milk containing less fat could be secured for cooking and that richer in cream for special purposes, and the whole transaction would be fairer than the present system, where a quart of adulterated and skimmed milk sells for the same money as the genuine product.