Milk, when digested, is nutritive, but is injurious to the gums and teeth; and, therefore, after taking it, one ought to rinse one’s mouth, first with honied water, and then with an astringent wine. It also produces headach, occasions flatulence of the stomach, and hypochondria, and engenders stones in the kidneys. The more watery kind contains less nourishment, but is more laxative, while, on the other hand, the thick is more nutritive, and moves the belly less. That of the goat is of a middling consistence, as that of the sheep is thicker; and it, immediately after the ewe has brought forth lambs, is thinner, but it afterwards becomes thicker and worse. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It appears, from Homer, that the milk of various animals was used for food in the heroic ages of Greece. His commentator, Eustathius, remarks that it is very nutritious, and, in proof of this, relates the case of one Philinus, who used no other food or drink. (Ad Iliad. xiii, 6.) Hippocrates, who often makes mention of milk as a medicine, and as an article of food, states that it sometimes occasions the formation of stones in the bladder (de Aer., Aquis et Locis, 24); and this opinion was adopted by all the ancient authorities on medicine. Milk, he says, is bad for those who are subject to headach, for those in fever, or who have flatulency of the bowels, with rumbling or thirst; also for those who are bilious and have bloody discharges from the bowels. He recommends it in consumption, and during convalescence from protracted fevers. (Aph. v, 64.) According to Galen, the thickest milk of all, and the fattest, is that of cows; the most liquid and least fat is that of the camel; and after it that of the mare, and then of the ass; the milk of goats is of a middle consistence, and that of sheep thicker than it. It is clear, he adds, that thick milk contains more cheese, and liquid more whey. Liquid milk, therefore, is more laxative than thick; and, on the contrary, thick milk is more nutritious than liquid. He mentions that whey, either alone or with a certain mixture of salt, may often be used as an excellent laxative medicine. He states that if a goat or any other animal eat of scammony or spurge, her milk will be rendered purgative. He says that milk is most beneficial in complaints of the chest, but most injurious in diseases of the head and hypochondrium. He, and all the ancient authorities after him, state that milk is apt to hurt the teeth. Celsus calls milk a wholesome and nutritious article of food; but says that it is apt to disagree with the stomach, and to prove flatulent. The learned Varro says of milk: “Est omnium rerum quas cibi causa capimus liquentium maxime alibile, et id ovillum, inde caprinum.” (De R. R. ii, 11.)