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Paul L. H. McSweeney
James A. O'Mahony Editors

Advanced Dairy
Chemistry
Volume 1B: Proteins: Applied Aspects
Fourth Edition
Advanced Dairy Chemistry
Paul L. H. McSweeney
James A. O’Mahony
Editors

Advanced Dairy
Chemistry
Volume 1B: Proteins: Applied Aspects

Fourth Edition
Editors
Paul L.H. McSweeney James A. O’Mahony
School of Food and Nutritional Sciences School of Food and Nutritional Sciences
Cork, Ireland Cork, Ireland

ISBN 978-1-4939-2799-9 ISBN 978-1-4939-2800-2 (eBook)


DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-2800-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950625

Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London


© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or
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publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
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contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer Science+Business Media LLC New York is part of Springer Science+Business Media
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Preface to the Fourth Edition

Advanced Dairy Chemistry-1B: Proteins: Applied Aspects is the second vol-


ume of the fourth edition of the series on advanced topics in dairy chemistry,
which started in 1982 with the publication of Developments in Dairy
Chemistry. The second and third editions of this work were published in 1992
and 2003, respectively, with the first volume of the fourth edition, Advanced
Dairy Chemistry-1A: Proteins: Basic Aspects published in 2013. This series
of volumes is an authoritative treatise on dairy chemistry. Like the earlier
series, this work is intended for academics, researchers at universities and
industry, and senior students; each chapter is referenced extensively.
The chemistry and physico-chemical properties of milk proteins is per-
haps the largest and most rapidly evolving area in dairy chemistry and it has
proved impossible to cover this topic at the desired depth in one volume.
Hence, coverage of dairy proteins in the fourth edition of Advanced Dairy
Chemistry has been split between basic and applied aspects (this volume).
Most chapters in the third edition on applied aspects of dairy proteins have
been retained but have been revised and expanded. The original chapter on
production and utilization of functional milk proteins has been split into two
new chapters focusing on casein- and whey-based ingredients separately by
new authors. The chapters on denaturation, aggregation, and gelation of whey
proteins (Chap. 6), heat stability of milk (Chap. 7), and protein stability in
sterilized milk (Chap. 10) have been revised and expanded considerably by
new authors, and new chapters have been included on rehydration properties
of dairy protein powders (Chap. 4) and sensory properties of dairy protein
ingredients (Chap. 8). We wish to thank sincerely the 32 contributors (from
eight countries) of the 15 chapters of this volume, whose cooperation made
our task as editors a pleasure. We wish to acknowledge the assistance given
by our editor at Springer Science+Business Media, New York, Ms. Susan
Safren and Ms. Sabina Ashbaugh, editorial assistant at Springer, for help in
preparing the manuscript.

Cork, Ireland P.L.H. McSweeney


J.A. O’Mahony

v
Preface to the Third Edition

Advanced Dairy Chemistry—1: Proteins is the first volume of the third edi-
tion of the series on advanced topics in dairy chemistry, which started in 1982
with the publication of Developments in Dairy Chemistry. This series of vol-
umes is intended to be a coordinated and authoritative treatise on dairy chem-
istry. In the decade since the second edition of this volume was published
(1992), there have been considerable advances in the study of milk proteins,
which are reflected in changes to this book.
All topics included in the second edition are retained in the current edition,
which has been updated and considerably expanded from 18 to 29 chapters.
Owing to its size, the book is divided into two parts; Part A (Chaps. 1–11)
describes the more basic aspects of milk proteins while Part B (Chaps. 12–29)
reviews the more applied aspects. Chapter 1, a new chapter, presents an over-
view of the milk protein system, especially from an historical viewpoint.
Chapters 2–5, 7–9, 15, and 16 are revisions of chapters in the second edition
and cover analytical aspects, chemical and physiochemical properties, bio-
synthesis and genetic polymorphism of the principal milk proteins. Non-
bovine caseins are reviewed in Chap. 6. Biological properties of milk proteins,
which were covered in three chapters in the second edition, are now expanded
to five chapters; a separate chapter, Chap. 10, is devoted to lactoferrin and
Chap. 11, on indigenous enzymes in milk, has been restructured and expanded.
Nutritional aspects, allergenicity of milk proteins, and bioactive peptides are
discussed in Chaps. 12, 13, and 14, respectively. Because of significant devel-
opments in the area in the last decade, Chap. 17 on genetic engineering of
milk proteins has been included. Various aspects of the stability of milk pro-
teins are covered in Chap. 18 (enzymatic coagulation), Chap. 19 (heat-
induced coagulation), Chap. 20 (age gelation of sterilized milk), Chap. 21
(ethanol stability), and Chap. 22 (acid coagulation, a new chapter).
The book includes four chapters on the scientific aspects of protein-rich
dairy products (milk powders, Chap. 23; ice cream, Chap. 24; cheese, Chap.
25; functional milk proteins, Chap. 26) and three chapters on technologically
important properties of milk proteins (surface properties, Chap. 27; thermal
denaturation aggregation, Chap. 28; hydration and viscosity, Chap. 29).

vii
viii Preface to the Third Edition

Like its predecessors, this book is intended for academics, researchers at


universities and industry, and senior students; each chapter is referenced
extensively.
We wish to thank sincerely the 60 contributors to the 29 chapters of this
volume, whose cooperation made our task as editors a pleasure. The generous
assistance of Ms. Anne Cahalane is gratefully acknowledged.

Cork, Ireland P.F. Fox


Paul L.H. McSweeney
Preface to the Second Edition

Considerable progress has been made on various aspects of milk proteins


since Developments in Dairy Chemistry 1—Proteins was published in 1982.
Advanced Dairy Chemistry can be regarded as the second edition of
Development in Dairy Chemistry, which has been updated and considerably
expanded. Many of the original chapters have been revised and updated, e.g.
‘Association of Caseins and Casein Micelle Structure’, ‘Biosynthesis of Milk
Proteins’, ‘Enzymatic Coagulation of Milk’, ‘Heat Stability of Milk’, ‘Age
Gelation of Sterilized Milks’, and ‘Nutritional Aspects of Milk Proteins’.
Chapter 1 in Developments, i.e., ‘Chemistry of Milk Proteins’, has been sub-
divided and extended to four chapters: chemistry and physico-chemical prop-
erties of the caseins, b-lactoglobulin, a-lactalbumin, and immunoglobulins.
New chapters have been added, including ‘Analytical Methods for Milk
Proteins’, ‘Biologically Active Proteins and Peptides’, ‘Indigenous Enzymes
in Milk’, ‘Genetic Polymorphism of Milk Proteins’, ‘Genetic Engineering of
Milk Proteins’, ‘Ethanol Stability of Milk’, and ‘Significance of Proteins in
Milk Powders’. A few subjects have been deleted or abbreviated; the three
chapters on functional milk proteins in Developments have been abbreviated
to one in view of the recently published fourth volume of Developments in
Dairy Chemistry—4—Functional Milk Proteins.
Like its predecessor, the book is intended for lecturers, senior students,
and research personnel, and each chapter is extensively referenced.
I would like to thank all the authors who contributed to the book and
whose cooperation made my task a pleasure.

Cork, Ireland P.F. Fox

ix
Preface to the First Edition

Because of its commercial and nutritional significance and the ease with
which its principal constituents, proteins, lipids, and lactose, can be purified
free of each other, milk and dairy products have been the subject of chemical
investigation for more than a century. Consequently, milk is the best-described
in chemical terms, of the principal food groups. Scientific interest in milk is
further stimulated by the great diversity of milks—there are about 4000 mam-
malian species, each of which secretes milk with specific characteristics. The
relative ease with which the intact mammary gland can be isolated in an
active state from the body makes milk a very attractive subject for biosyn-
thetic studies. More than any other food commodity, milk is a very versatile
raw material and a very wide range of food products are produced from the
whole or fractionated system.
This text on proteins is the first volume in an advanced series on selected
topics in dairy chemistry. Each chapter is extensively referenced and, it is
hoped, should prove a useful reference source for senior students, lecturers,
and research personnel. The selection of topics for ‘Proteins’ has been influ-
enced by a wish to treat the subject in a comprehensive and balanced fashion.
Thus, Chaps. 1 and 2 are devoted to an in-depth review of the molecular and
colloidal chemistry of the proteins of bovine milk. Although less exhaus-
tively studied than those of bovine milk, considerable knowledge is available
on the lactoproteins of a few other species and an inter-species comparison is
made in Chap. 3. The biosynthesis of the principal lactoproteins is reviewed
in Chap. 4. Chapters 5–8 are devoted to alterations in the colloidal state of
milk proteins arising from chemical, physical, or enzymatic modification
during processing or storage, viz. enzymatic coagulation, heat-induced coag-
ulation, age gelation of sterilized milks, and chemical and enzymatic changes
in cold-stored raw milk. Milk and dairy products provide 20–30 % of protein
in ‘western’ diets and are important worldwide in infant nutrition: lactopro-
teins in particular are considered in Chap. 9. The increasing significance of
‘fabricated’ foods has created a demand for ‘functional’ proteins: Chaps.
10–12 are devoted to the technology, functional properties and food applica-
tions of the caseinates and various whey protein products.

xi
xii Preface to the First Edition

Because of space constraints, it was necessary to exclude coverage of the


more traditional protein-rich dairy products: milk powders and cheese. It is
hoped to devote sections of a future volume to these products.
I wish to thank sincerely the 13 other authors who have contributed to this
text and whose cooperation made my task as editor a pleasure.

Cork, Ireland P.F. Fox


Contents

1 Manufacture and Properties of Dairy Powders ......................... 1


Alan L. Kelly and Patrick F. Fox
2 Functional Milk Proteins Production and Utilization:
Casein-Based Ingredients ............................................................. 35
Alistair Carr and Matt Golding
3 Functional Milk Proteins: Production
and Utilization—Whey-Based Ingredients ................................. 67
Nidhi Bansal and Bhesh Bhandari
4 Rehydration and Solubility Characteristics
of High-Protein Dairy Powders.................................................... 99
S.V. Crowley, A.L. Kelly, P. Schuck, R. Jeantet,
and J.A. O’Mahony
5 Emulsions and Foams Stabilised by Milk Proteins .................... 133
Anwesha Sarkar and Harjinder Singh
6 Heat-Induced Denaturation, Aggregation and Gelation
of Whey Proteins ........................................................................... 155
André Brodkorb, Thomas Croguennec, Said Bouhallab,
and Joseph J. Kehoe
7 Heat Stability of Milk ................................................................... 179
Thom Huppertz
8 Sensory Properties of Milk Protein Ingredients......................... 197
T.J. Smith, R.E. Campbell, and M.A. Drake
9 Ethanol Stability and Milk Composition .................................... 225
David S. Horne
10 Protein Stability in Sterilised Milk and Milk Products ............. 247
Hilton Deeth and Mike Lewis
11 Enzymatic Coagulation of Milk ................................................... 287
M. Corredig and E. Salvatore
12 Acid Coagulation of Milk ............................................................. 309
John A. Lucey

xiii
xiv Contents

13 Milk Proteins in Ice Cream .......................................................... 329


H. Douglas Goff
14 Protein in Cheese and Cheese Products:
Structure-Function Relationships ............................................... 347
Timothy P. Guinee
15 Milk Protein Hydrolysates and Bioactive Peptides .................... 417
A.B. Nongonierma, M.B. O’Keeffe, and R.J. FitzGerald

Index ....................................................................................................... 483


Contributors

Nidhi Bansal School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of


Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Bhesh Bhandari School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University
of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Said Bouhallab INRA, UMR1253 STLO, Rennes, France
AGROCAMPUS OUEST, UMR1253 STLO, Rennes, France
André Brodkorb Teagasc Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
R.E. Campbell Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
Alistair Carr Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
M. Corredig Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph,
ON, Canada
Thomas Croguennec INRA, UMR1253 STLO, Rennes, France
AGROCAMPUS OUEST, UMR1253 STLO, Rennes, France
S.V. Crowley School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College
Cork, Cork, Ireland
Hilton Deeth School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
M.A. Drake Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, NC, USA
R.J. FitzGerald Department of Life Sciences, University of Limerick,
Limerick, Ireland
Food for Health Ireland (FHI), University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Patrick F. Fox School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College
Cork, Cork, Ireland
H. Douglas Goff Department of Food Science, University of Guelph,
Guelph, ON, Canada
Matt Golding Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

xv
xvi Contributors

Timothy P. Guinee Teagasc Food Research Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy,


Co. Cork, Ireland
David S. Horne Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, University of
Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Thom Huppertz NIZO Food Research, BA Ede, The Netherlands
R. Jeantet INRA, UMR1253, STLO, Rennes, France
Agrocampus Quest, UMR1253, STLO, Rennes, France
Joseph J. Kehoe Teagasc Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
Alan L. Kelly School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College
Cork, Cork, Ireland
Mike Lewis Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of
Reading, Reading, UK
John A. Lucey Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
A.B. Nongonierma Department of Life Sciences, University of Limerick,
Limerick, Ireland
Food for Health Ireland (FHI), University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
M.B. O’Keeffe Department of Life Sciences, University of Limerick,
Limerick, Ireland
J.A. O’Mahony School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University
College Cork, Cork, Ireland
E. Salvatore Agris Sardegna, Department of Animal Science, Bonassai
Olmedo, Sassari, Italy
Anwesha Sarkar Riddet Institute, Massey University, Palmerston North,
New Zealand
School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
P. Schuck INRA, UMR1253, STLO, Rennes, France
Agrocampus Quest, UMR1253, STLO, Rennes, France
Harjinder Singh Riddet Institute, Massey University, Palmerston North,
New Zealand
T.J. Smith Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, NC, USA
Manufacture and Properties
of Dairy Powders 1
Alan L. Kelly and Patrick F. Fox

Abstract
Due to the high intrinsic perishability of milk, strategies for its preserva-
tion by partial or almost complete removal of water have been studied and
used commercially for over a century. Today, milk-based powders (e.g.,
whole and skim milk powders) represent a very large sector of dairy com-
modity production and export trade, and demand for these products, for a
range of applications, is increasing. The technology of production of these
powders, based around pre-concentration of milk by multi-stage thermal
evaporation followed by spray drying in a range of related dryer types,
which vary in terms of design, method of atomisation and number of dry-
ing stages, is today very sophisticated. Key properties of milk powders,
such as their ability to flow, remain stable on long-term storage, and recon-
stitute on addition to water, are influenced by drying parameters.
Understanding these relationships allows processes to be manipulated in
order to yield tailored functionality for each application. The technology
of drying milk to produce the principal dairy powders is reviewed in this
chapter, along with the principal changes to milk constituents induced by
such processes, and the potential for use of these powders in applications
such as cheese and yoghurt manufacture

Keywords
Milk powder • Spray drying • Properties of milk powders • Dairy ingredients
• Powder applications • Speciality milk powders

1.1 Introduction

The first recorded reference to the manufacture of


A.L. Kelly (*) • P.F. Fox milk powder as a method for preserving milk was
School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, by Marco Polo, who observed the use of milk pow-
University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
der by Mongol soldiers in the thirteenth century
e-mail: a.kelly@ucc.ie

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 1


P.L.H. McSweeney, J.A. O’Mahony (eds.), Advanced Dairy Chemistry,
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-2800-2_1
2 A.L. Kelly and P.F. Fox

(Hall and Hedrick, 1975). The earliest modern 1.2 Types of Milk Powders
commercial concentrated dairy products were air-
dried concentrated milk tablets, developed in 1809 A wide range of dry dairy products is produced
by Nicholas Appert, vacuum-concentrated sweet- worldwide, a selection of which are listed in
ened condensed milks by Gail Borden in 1856 and Table 1.1. Milk powder is produced for local con-
sterilized concentrated milk (evaporated milk) by sumption, some as reconstituted milk but usually
J.B. Meyenberg in 1884. During the period 1850– mainly for use as an ingredient in other foods or
1900, several ‘solidified milk’ products were pro- for export. Developments in end-use applications
duced, e.g., that patented in 1855 by T.S. Grimwade of milk and milk-based powders, and tailoring
(UK), by adding sucrose, sodium carbonate and functionality for individual applications, was
cereal to concentrated milk. Roller-dried milk was reviewed by Sharma et al. (2012).
first produced by J.R. Hatmaker in 1902 in the UK, Much milk powder is traded internationally,
and roller-drying was the predominant method for from milk-rich to milk-deficient regions. The prin-
drying milk products, including infant formula, until cipal milk powder importing countries are listed in
the 1960s (Pearse, 1998). Spray drying was intro- Table 1.2. About 3.8 and 3.6 million tonnes of
duced to the chemical industry by Samuel R. Percy whole and skimmed milk powder, respectively,
in 1872; the process was improved gradually and were produced in 2009. The principal producers of
used to dry milk by J.C. MacLachlan in 1905
(Hunziger, 1926). Today, spray drying is essen-
Table 1.1 Range of dried dairy products
tially the only process used to produce milk pow-
Skim milk powder Butter powder
ders, which have become major, and growing,
Instant Cheese powders
dairy products. There is an extensive literature on
Regular Buttermilk powder
milk powders, including the following textbooks
Low-, medium-, high-heat Whey powders
and review articles: Hunziker (1926), Hall and
Whole milk powder Normal
Hedrick (1975), Rothwell (1980), Masters (1991), Instant Demineralised
Caric (1994), Písecký (1997), Westergaard (2003), Regular Delactosed
Tamime (2009), Skanderby (2011) and Schuck High free fat Caseinates (sodium,
(2011a, b) and Schuck et al. (2012). potassium, calcium)
Spray dryers have evolved in design and appli- Filled milk powder Rennet casein
cation, and now a range of dryer types is avail- Infant formulae Acid casein
able, suitable for the production of a wide variety Total milk proteinates
of dairy products. One of the key driving forces in Casein coprecipitates
dryer development has been the requirement of
consumers for convenient, easily reconstituted Table 1.2 Imports of whole milk powder (WMP) and
(‘instant’) powders, produced from whole or skimmed milk powder (SMP), in thousands of tonnes
skimmed milk, and a range of other dairy prod- (IDF, 2010)
ucts, such as whey and buttermilk. Increased Country WMP SMP
understanding of the chemical and physical China 382 128
changes which occur in milk during drying have Japan 0 35
paralleled developments in drying technology Korea 1 10
and enable very fine control of the properties, and Turkey 15 12
hence potential applications, of milk powders. EU 1 6
The modern processes used for the production USA 22 0
of dairy powders, the effects of these processes Russia 20 52
on the proteins and other constituents of milk, Brazil 52 11
and the properties of milk powders will be Australia 17 6
considered in this chapter. Mexico 27 165
1 Manufacture and Properties of Dairy Powders 3

WMP in 2009 were China (977), New Zealand be produced for nutritional reasons but it is done
(790), EU (739), Brazil (473), Argentina (235) and mainly for economic reasons (Hayman, 1995;
Australia (126), with all figures being in thousands Vignolles et al., 2010). The fat used is normally
of tonnes. The principal producers of SMP were cheaper than milk fat, e.g., lard, tallow or vegeta-
EU (1200), USA (778), India (364), New Zealand ble oils, for calf-milk replacers or vegetable oils
(360), Australia (190) and Japan (167), in thou- produced in an importing country blended with
sands of tonnes. Total exports of WMP in 2009 reconstituted imported SMP. The influence of oil
were 2.13 million tonnes, of which New Zealand type (sunflower and palm oil) and spray dryer out-
supplied 37 %, EU 22 %, Argentina 7 %, Australia let temperature, in terms of properties of fat-filled
6 %, and the rest of the world 30 %. Total exports milk powders was reported by Kelly et al. (2014).
of SMP in 2009 were 1.33 million tonnes, of Encapsulated milk fat powders (40–60 % fat)
which New Zealand supplied 30 %, USA 19 %, may be produced using a blend of emulsifying salts,
EU 17 %, Australia 13 %, and the rest of the world SMP and flour, starch or sucrose (Holsinger et al.,
21 %. Total exports of whey powders and whey 2000). Such powders, which have good flow prop-
products were 1.31 million tonnes, of which the erties and are resistant to oxidation, compared to
EU supplied 37 %, USA 30 %, New Zealand 7 %, other high-fat powders, may be used as substitutes
Switzerland 5 %, Australia 3 %, Canada 3 % and for vegetable shortenings in a range of food prod-
the rest of the world 15 %. ucts and in applications such as coffee whiteners.
The two principal commercial milk powders High-fat powders, which may be defined as
are SMP and WMP, which are generally classified powders with a fat content in the range 42–65 %
as either regular (non-instant) or instant. Food (Early, 1990; Munns, 1991), present certain prob-
applications of SMP and WMP are summarised in lems in drying due to the crystallisation of fat during
Table 1.3. Commercial SMP is also routinely clas- handling and storage. Pneumatic transport from
sified according to the pre-heat treatment applied dryers may not cool the powder sufficiently to crys-
(heat classification) as low- (or low-low-), tallise all the fat therein and some fat may crystallise
medium- or high-heat powders. Fat-filled, or subsequently on cooling in the package, releasing
filled, milk powders are products with a fat the latent heat of crystallisation and thus causes an
content close to that of WMP, produced by dry- increase in temperature, causing fat to melt and cak-
ing a blend of non-milk fat and skim milk ing of the powder, i.e., the formation of a solid mass
(Kelly et al., 2002). Fat-filled milk powder may of powder. This may be avoided by ensuring com-
plete fat crystallisation using a fluidised bed cooler
Table 1.3 Principal food applications of skim and whole
before packaging the powder (Early, 1998).
milk powders In recent years, a number of fractionated or
semi-refined milk protein powders have been
Skim milk powder
Reconstitution
developed for specific functional applications,
Cheesemaking (low-heat SMP) with many products arising from the selective use
Confectionery products of membrane technologies, such as microfiltra-
Ice cream and other desserts tion, ultrafiltration or diafiltration (Mistry and
Hot and cold beverages Hassan, 1991; Kelly et al., 2000). Kelly et al.
Recombined sweetened condensed milk (2000) described a method for the production of
Bakery products (high-heat SMP) native phosphocasein-rich powders using micro-
Calf milk replacers filtration and electrodialysis: the latter treatment
Recombined milk production improved the heat stability of the powder but seri-
Chocolate manufacture ously impaired its rennet coagulation properties.
Meat products Protein-enriched milk powders may be used as
Whole milk powder substitutes for SMP and have been shown to have
Reconstitution good functional properties for a range of food
Convenience soups and sauces applications (Mistry and Hassan, 1991). Garem
Milk chocolate (high free fat WMP) et al. (2000) described the manufacture of a milk
4 A.L. Kelly and P.F. Fox

powder with improved cheesemaking properties adding demineralised whey or whey protein
by partial removal of whey proteins by a combina- concentrate (WPC). Human milk lacks
tion of microfiltration and ultrafiltration. The pro- β-lactoglobulin, which is the most allergenic
duction of micellar casein powders with significant bovine milk protein for human infants. Bovine
potential application in cheese manufacture was whey proteins may be fractionated, and the
reviewed by Saboya and Maubois (2000). α-lactalbumin (α-la)-rich fraction used for
Hot tea or coffee is a rather hostile environ- infant formula. The β-lactoglobulin-rich frac-
ment (pH < 5, temperature up to 100 °C) for milk tion has better gelling properties than regular
and the SMP or WMP products produced in the WPC and is a valuable food ingredient;
1960s were unstable under these conditions. The • Lipids, e.g., sunflower oil, are added, to reflect
whey proteins were denatured and precipitated the fact that human milk fat is more unsatu-
on the surface of powder particles before they rated than bovine milk fat;
could dissolve; the particles flocculated and sedi- • The ash (mineral) content must be reduced, by
mented. Alternative ‘coffee whiteners’, made electrodialysis or membrane filtration of the
with sodium caseinate, vegetable oil, corn syrup dairy ingredient components, as it is around
and emulsifiers were developed and became four times higher than that of human milk and
widely used. Due to advances in understanding may cause renal overload;
the factors affecting coffee stability, modern • The blend may be fortified with vitamins and
SMP or WMP are suitable as coffee whiteners perhaps other important nutrients, e.g., lacto-
but casein-based products are still widely used, ferrin and milk oligosaccharides.
mainly because they are cheap.
Another highly specialised type of dried milk- The blend is pasteurised, homogenized and
based product is infant formula, which has been standardized, and then either spray-dried and pack-
produced as an alternative source of nutrition for aged or UHT-treated and aseptically packaged.
infants to breast milk since 1867, when Justus Formulae for healthy infants are normally of
van Leibig developed a product based on drying two types: ‘first-stage’ and ‘second-stage follow-
a mixture of whole milk, wheat flour, malt flour on’ formulae. Speciality formulae are available
and potassium carbonate in heated trays. The for infants with special needs, e.g., low birth-
commercial brand SMA (originally standing for weight, lactose intolerance, anti-regurgitation,
Synthetic Milk Adapted) was first produced in low-caloric, extensively hydrolysed and low phe-
the USA in the early twentieth century. nylalanine content (Maldonado et al., 1998;
Today, the manufacture of infant formulae is a Thompkinson and Khard, 2007).
highly specialised sector of the dairy industry
and these products are more properly referred to
as neutraceuticals rather than dairy products 1.3 Technology of Milk Powder
(O’Callaghan et al., 2011). The manufacturing Manufacture
protocol varies with the company and type of for-
mula, but a general protocol is shown in Fig. 1.1. The production of a number of common milk
The first step is preparation of the blend of powders has been described extensively (e.g.,
ingredients (mainly dry) with the following Písecký, 1997; Caric, 2003; Kelly, 2006; Schuck,
considerations: 2011a), and is summarised below.

• The base may be SMP or liquid skimmed


milk; 1.3.1 Milk Pre-Treatment
• The lactose content is adjusted to that of
human milk by addition of lactose or deminer- Milk of high microbiological quality is required
alised whey; for powder manufacture; bactofugation or micro-
• The concentrations and relative proportions of filtration may be used to remove both bacterial
caseins and whey proteins are adjusted, by cells and spores from milk, and thus ensure a
1 Manufacture and Properties of Dairy Powders 5

Fig. 1.1 Schematic flowchart for the production of infant formula (from Montagne et al., 2009)
6 A.L. Kelly and P.F. Fox

milk powder of very high microbiological qual- approaches, such as steam-injection processes,
ity. Whole milk is usually standardised, typically have been developed (Murphy et al., 2013).
to a fat to solids-non-fat ratio of 1:2.76, to control As discussed in Sect. 1.2, skim milk powder
the fat content of the final powder. (SMP) is often classified according to the heat
treatment applied during preheating. There are
three principal heat categories: low heat (typi-
1.3.2 Preheating and Concentration cally heated at 75 °C for 15 s), medium heat (typ-
ically heated at 75 °C for 1–3 min) and high heat
Heating of milk immediately before evaporation (heated at 80 °C for 30 min or 120 °C for 1 min);
ensures the microbiological quality of the con- some manufacturers may also produce a low-low
centrate and of the final powder, but is also a criti- heat product, with even a milder heat treatment
cal step in the control of the functional properties than that for low-heat products (often minimum
of the powder; the exact conditions vary depend- pasteurisation). Whole milk powder (WMP) is
ing on the product in question, as discussed generally not heat-classified, but the concentrate
below. Preheating is usually the highest tempera- is heated at 85–95 °C for several minutes to
ture step applied during manufacture and is there- ensure inactivation of indigenous lipase and to
fore the step at which most whey protein expose sulphydryl groups with antioxidant activ-
denaturation occurs (Singh and Creamer, 1991). ity (Hols and Van Mil, 1991).
Preheating may be performed using any of a After pre-heating, the milk is concentrated to
range of heat exchangers, including plate heat 45–50 % or 42–48 % total solids (TS) for whole
exchangers, spiral heat exchangers wrapped or skim milk, respectively. Typically, evaporation
around the tubes in the evaporator itself or using is performed in a multiple effect (stage) falling-
very short-time steam injection heating systems. film evaporator, where thermal efficiency is max-
Direct heat exchangers are preferred over indi- imised by maintaining each subsequent effect at
rect systems, as biofilms of thermophilic bacteria progressively lower pressure, and thus reduced
may develop within indirect heat exchangers boiling point, allowing the vapour from each
(Early, 1998). In recent years, new technological effect to be used as the heating medium for the

Fig. 1.2 Schematic diagram of a triple effect evaporator mix vapour from the first effect with steam and compress
showing (1) first effect, (2) second effect, (3) third effect, (4) the mixture, thereby increasing its temperature and allowing
thermocompressor, (5) vapour condenser and (6) vacuum its use as heating medium for the first effect and reducing
pump; calandria (A) and vapour-liquid separating cyclone the overall consumption of steam
(B) are shown. The function of the thermocompressor is to
1 Manufacture and Properties of Dairy Powders 7

next effect (Fig. 1.2). Steam consumption is 1.3.3 Drying


reduced further, and the economy of operation
increased, by use of thermal or mechanical The first commercial milk powder plants used
vapour recompression to increase the tempera- roller dryers, consisting typically of two co- or
ture of some or all of the vapour and allow it to counter-rotating steam-heated drums, with or
be used as an additional heating medium. without a preliminary concentration step. Roller
Conventionally, concentration is monitored using drying entails the direct transfer of heat from the
an in-line refractometer, although the use of an drum to a thin film of milk (Fig. 1.3). The water is
on-line viscometer has been recommended evaporated off and the dried solids are removed
(O’Donnell et al., 1996). and pulverised, which produces very irregularly
As an alternative to evaporation, membrane shaped powder particles. This method of drying
processing may be used for specific applications. results in severe thermal damage to milk constitu-
While processes such as ultrafiltration (UF) frac- ents, with adverse effects on flavour and quality.
tionate milk constituents, reverse osmosis (RO) Modifications to the basic roller dryer to reduce
or hyperfiltration or nanofiltration (NF) remove damage to the product include drying in a vacuum
essentially only water (and monovalent ions in chamber at a lower drum temperature. Generally,
the case of NF), and thus can serve as a pre- roller drying has been replaced by spray drying,
concentration step. RO is limited to a low solids although it is still used for specific applications,
level (< 20 % TS) and a medium flow rate, but has
lower operation costs and is far less thermally
intensive than evaporation (Písecký, 1997). The
concentration of milk by UF membranes, which
are far less susceptible to fouling than RO mem-
branes (El-Gazzar and Marth, 1991), has been
suggested also. Concentration by UF offers
advantages in that heat treatment during concen-
tration is avoided and the levels of protein and
lactose in the powder may be standardised and
controlled (Sweetsur and Muir, 1980; Muir and
Sweetsur, 1984; Mistry and Pulgar, 1996; Horton,
1997; Sikand et al., 2008, 2010). The signifi-
cance of these alterations in powder composition
is discussed in Sect. 1.5.
Crystallisation of lactose prior to drying is
desirable for many products, particularly high-
lactose products, such as whey powders and,
consequently, the concentrate may be held before
drying under conditions which promote crystal-
lisation and/or may be seeded with finely-ground
lactose crystals, which promote crystallisation by
acting as nuclei (Sanderson, 1978).
Milk for WMP or fat-filled milk powder man-
ufacture may also be homogenised, typically
after concentration and before drying. Fig. 1.3 Principle of operation of roller dryers fed either
Conventionally, two-stage homogenisation is by (a) spray applicators or (b) feed sump, showing (1)
steam-heated drums (may be co- or counter-rotating); (2)
used at a temperature in the range 60–70 °C; typi-
spray applicator; (3) sump; (4) knife for removing dry
cal homogenisation pressures are 15 MPa fol- product after completion of one (partial) rotation; (5) con-
lowed by 5 MPa. veyor for grinding and transporting dry product
8 A.L. Kelly and P.F. Fox

Table 1.4 Characteristics of different types of atomisation


Pressure nozzle atomisation Centrifugal wheel atomisation
Advantages Advantages
Low occluded air in powder Good flexibility
High powder bulk density Handles high feed rates
Good powder flowability Handles viscous concentrates
Simple and low cost Wheel speed controls droplet size
Low energy consumption Steam sweep to control bulk density
Good control over spray flow Insensitive to concentration variation
Low deposit levels in chamber Low risk of blocking during run
Can agglomerate with angled nozzles Can handle crystalline feeds
Can co-dry separate feeds
Disadvantages Disadvantages
Susceptible to blockage High energy consumption
High air incorporation
High capital costs
May give deposits in drying chamber

such as the production of WMP with a high free Particle size and, in particular, the distribution of
fat content, which is desirable for chocolate particle sizes is very important in determining the
manufacture (Clarke and Augustin, 2005). properties of milk powder, as will be discussed in
Today, the majority of milk powder is pro- Sect. 1.5. Atomisation may be achieved using
duced by spray drying, as summarised briefly in nozzles under pressure or by centrifugal force
the following section. For more detail on techno- using a rotating disk or wheel. Pressure nozzle
logical and engineering aspects of this process, atomisers have either grooved core inserts or swirl
comprehensive descriptions have been given by chambers to impart rotary motion to the feed
Hansen (1985), Masters (1991), Westergaard (Masters, 1991). The selection of atomiser type is
(1994, 2003), Caric (1994), Písecký (1997) and critical in determining the properties of the pow-
Refstrup and Bourke (2011). der produced. For maximum flexibility, different
In spray dryers, concentrate is taken from the types of atomiser can be used interchangeably in
evaporator, using a positive displacement pump, to many spray dryers. The influence of pressure noz-
an atomiser, usually located at the top of a spray zle and centrifugal atomisers on the properties of
drying chamber, which produces a spray of drop- milk powder is compared in Table 1.4.
lets which contact hot air and are dried to individ- There are three principal classes of spray
ual powder particles. The concentrate is generally dryer, based on the number of separate drying
heated to ~72 °C before atomisation, to reduce stages (one, two or three) used to achieve the final
viscosity and obtain optimal atomisation. The moisture content of the powder (typically 3–5 %;
objective of atomisation is to convert the liquid Woodhams and Murray, 1978). These spray dryer
feed to a spray of droplets, 10–400 μm in diameter. types are illustrated in Fig. 1.4.

Fig. 1.4 (continued) dryer (CSD, three stage) with annu- rotary), (3) main drying chamber, (4) cyclone, (5) external
lar integrated and external fluidised beds; (vi) multi-stage fluidised bed cooler, (6) external fluidised bed dryer, (7)
spray dryer (MSD, three stage) with circular integrated integrated annular bed dryer and (8) integrated circular
and external fluidised beds. Dryer components indicated bed dryer
include (1) hot air inlet, (2) atomiser (may be nozzle or
1 Manufacture and Properties of Dairy Powders 9

Single Stage
(i) Feed In (ii) 1 Feed In
1
2
4 4
2

3
3

5
Product Out

Product Out
Two Stage
(iii) Feed In (iv) Feed In
1 1

4 4
2 2
4
3 3

7
Product Out

Product Out

Three Stage
(v) Feed In (vi) 1 Feed In
1
4
4
4
2 2

3
3

7 8

6
6

Product Out
Product Out

Fig. 1.4 Common spray dryer configurations used for the fluidised bed cooling and conveying; (iii) two-stage dryer
manufacture of milk powder: (i) single-stage dryer with with external fluidised bed dryer; (iv) two-stage dryer
pneumatic powder conveying; (ii) single stage dryer with with integrated fluidised bed dryer; (v) compact spray
10 A.L. Kelly and P.F. Fox

In single-stage dryers, the whole drying pro- results in poor-quality non-instant, dusty powder.
cess occurs in the main cylindro-conical chamber In two- and three-stage drying the powder exits
of the spray dryer itself. Critical parameters the main drying chamber at a higher moisture
which determine both the quality of the final content (~10–15 %) than in a single-stage pro-
powder and the efficiency of the drying process cess, and drying is completed in additional dry-
are the temperature of the drying air on entry to ing stages. Thus, in two-stage drying, the main
and exit from the main chamber [Tinlet (typically chamber is followed by a fluidised bed dryer
160–220 °C) and Toutlet (typically 70–90 °C)]. while in three-stage spray dryers, the spray dryer
During drying, milk droplets are cooled continu- chamber is followed sequentially by an integrated
ously by loss of the latent heat of evaporation, fluidised bed and an external plug-flow fluidised
and generally never reach a temperature greater bed (Boersen, 1990). The two main categories of
than 70 °C during drying. Initially, droplets lose three-stage spray dryers used for milk powders
moisture at a constant rate, while saturation con- are those with an internal annular fluidised bed
ditions exist at the surface, but eventually satura- surrounding the air outlet (compact spray dryers,
tion can no longer be maintained and the rate of CSD) or dryers with an internal circular fluidised
drying decreases as a hard dry shell forms at the bed (multi-stage dryers, MSD).
droplet surface. If this shell becomes too solid or Separation of drying into two or three stages
thick, case-hardening occurs, preventing further allows for improved control of powder proper-
drying. If exposed to a high air temperature at the ties, greater efficiency of the drying process and,
end of drying (Toutlet), steam and air within pow- because the rate of heat introduction is adjusted to
der particles may expand, forming large vacuoles the rate of evaporation, the process is milder than
and, potentially, fracturing the powder particles, single-stage processes (Písecký, 1997). Another
resulting in an increased level of small, light advantage of two- or three-stage spray drying is
powder fragments (fines). The rate of drying that such processes are suitable for drying high
should be controlled so that the end of the falling TS concentrates without deterioration of product
rate drying period coincides with the end of heat- solubility. Two- and three-stage drying systems
ing and drying. The use of advanced process con- also have reduced stack losses (Písecký, 1997).
trol technologies in spray drying to optimise Movement of powder within the drying plant
processes based on understanding the thermody- may be achieved either by using a fluidised bed
namic properties of concentrated foods and rheo- or pneumatic system, although the latter method
logical properties during atomisation, among breaks up agglomerates, and is suitable only for
other factors, was reviewed by O’Callaghan and powders of high bulk density. Milk powder may
Cunningham (2005). be sifted for size classification, and then either
Air exiting the chamber carries a significant packaged directly, filled into intermediate trans-
amount of light powder particles and fines, which portation containers, or transferred to silos for
are removed from the air by passage through storage before packaging. Milk powder may be
cyclone separators and/or by using bag filters or packaged into wholesale, catering or retail packs
occasionally wet-scrubbing systems. Recovered (Warren, 1980). Generally, milk powder is pack-
powder is added to the main bulk of powder, aged in multi-layer paper bags with a polyethyl-
which is removed from the base of the drying ene inner lining. WMP may be packaged in an
chamber, either by a pneumatic conveying sys- inert atmosphere, where air is displaced by N2 or
tem or a fluidised bed using cold air to cool and a mixture of N2 and CO2, to improve oxidative
transport the powder. stability during storage. Occasionally, WMP may
Completion of drying in a single stage neces- be packed in tins or plastic containers, or in bags
sitates the use of a high air temperature (the air is consisting of multi-layer laminates incorporating
typically indirectly heated using steam-filled metal foil and high density plastic films (Varnam
tubular heat exchangers to 200–250 °C), which and Sutherland, 1994).
1 Manufacture and Properties of Dairy Powders 11

1.3.4 Instantization and instant properties than straight-through sys-


tems, where agglomeration is achieved during the
Single-stage drying produces dusty, non- powder manufacturing process itself but the rewet
agglomerated, non-instant powders of high bulk process is more costly and also more prone to
density. Production of milk powders that recon- microbiological contamination of the product.
stitute well when dispersed in cold water (instant To overcome the hydrophobic nature of
powders) has necessitated development of modi- milk fat, instantization of WMP requires a com-
fied spray drying processes. bination of agglomeration and lecithinisation.
For SMP, instantization is achieved by agglom- Agglomeration of WMP may be achieved by the
eration, i.e., the production of porous clusters of same procedures as for SMP. Lecithin, typically
particles, 250–750 μm in diameter, with a high extracted from soybeans, aids instantization by
level of entrapped air (Neff and Morris, 1967; virtue of its surfactant properties, and is usually
Sanderson, 1978; Písecký, 1997). Instantisation added to WMP at a level of ~0.2 % between the
reduces the bulk density of milk powder (pro- spray drying stage and the fluidised bed drying
duces lighter particles) and enhances its wettabil- or, alternatively, in a rewet process (Jensen, 1975;
ity, sinkability and solubility (see Sect. 1.5.2). Sanderson, 1978). When lecithin is added to
Agglomeration of SMP may be achieved by WMP, the mixture should be held at ~50 °C for
(1) returning fines (typically through a separate 5 min to ensure complete coating of the particles
pipeline) to the drying chamber close to the atom- with lecithin (Jensen, 1975; Sanderson, 1978).
iser, where they act as nuclei for the growth of Alternative techniques for producing instant
agglomerates (Refstrup, 1995), (2) by removal of WMP were reviewed by Sanderson (1978).
the powder from the spray drying chamber at
8–15 % moisture (and hence use of two- or three-
stage drying), which favours agglomerate forma- 1.3.5 Dust Explosions in Spray Dryers
tion during fluidised bed drying, or (3) by
rewetting processes applied at some point after One of the major risks in spray drying and subse-
drying (Neff and Morris, 1967). Other methods of quent handling of products is the possibility of
agglomeration include the use of multiple atom- fires and explosions which can be hazardous to
iser systems where nozzles are arranged so that personnel and expensive in terms of plant damage
sprays cross each other (Boersen, 1990), or the and shut-down. Synnott and Duane (1986) listed
use of curved-vane rotary atomisers or gases such the following as the principal causes of fires:
as CO2 or N2 which are introduced into the feed
and expand towards the end of drying, increasing • Friction between the rotary valve and cyclone
vacuole size. In order to produce agglomerates housing;
with optimum reconstitution properties, it has • External heating, e.g., during welding and
been proposed that low- or medium-heat milk be duct work;
used and that the initial powder particles should • Equipment malfunction;
have a high particle density and a diameter in the • Self-heating of deposits;
range 25–50 μm (Sanderson, 1978). • Nodules of powder forming.
Rewet agglomeration systems involve wetting
non-instant powder using either a gaseous phase Synnott and Duane (1986) concluded that
(humidified air or steam) or a liquid (milk or water) fires/explosions are not confined to a single type
wetting agent, holding for a certain period under of dryer or powder, although a disproportionate
conditions which favour the interaction of moist number appear to be associated with fat-filled
particles to form agglomerates, drying to remove powders. Increasing the level of fat and the
the added moisture, and using size classification degree of unsaturation of the fat tend to reduce
to screen agglomerates of the required size. the minimum ignition temperature (MIT) of
Rewet processes produce better agglomeration the powder. The protein fraction seems to be the
12 A.L. Kelly and P.F. Fox

component mainly responsible for self-heating. in milk proteins during drying and subsequent
Contamination with NaOH residues left after storage, and implications for nutritional quality,
cleaning reduces MIT. The causes of fires in in terms of the level of available lysine, were
spray dryers and their prevention are also dis- reviewed by Higgs and Boland (2008), while Le
cussed by Písecký (1997). et al. (2013) studied the impact of cross-linking
The potentially most serious problem with due to the Maillard reaction on protein solubility
spray drying milk powders is dust explosions, during storage of powder. The Maillard reaction
which occur when finely dispersed combustible is discussed in more detail in Sect. 1.4.2 below.
solids are exposed to an ignition source. The rate of the increase in temperature during
They occur under the following conditions preheating may affect whey protein interactions.
(Písecký, 1997): Indirect heating (with a slower heating rate)
favours whey protein-whey protein interactions
• Sufficient concentration (usually around 50 g/ and higher overall denaturation of whey proteins
m3) of an explosive airborne dust; than more rapid direct heating methods, which
• A source of ignition; favour extensive casein-whey protein interac-
• Presence of oxygen in the surrounding tions (Early, 1998). This may be related to the
atmosphere. fact that when milk is heated at a relatively low
temperature, formation of disulphide bonds pre-
dominates, while a higher temperature is required
1.4 Physico-Chemical Changes for the thermal reduction of disulphide bonds and
to Milk Constituents During thus sulphydryl-disulphide interchange reactions
Drying (de Wit, 1981). Therefore, as caseins do not pos-
sess free sulphydryl groups (Swaisgood, 1992),
1.4.1 Proteins more gentle heating will favour whey protein-
whey protein interactions.
On preheating at a temperature above 75°C at Holding concentrate at a temperature above
pH ~ 6.5, β-lactoglobulin is denatured, causing 60 °C for an extended period before spray drying
significant alterations to its secondary and ter- can cause aggregation of casein micelles, increas-
tiary structures, and at a temperature above 90°C, ing the viscosity of the concentrate and affecting
extensive whey protein denaturation occurs. the reconstitution properties of SMP (Muir,
Denatured β-lactoglobulin and, to a lesser extent, 1980). During the actual processes of evapora-
α-lactalbumin, complex via disulphide bond for- tion and spray drying, relatively little denatur-
mation with κ-casein (Noh and Richardson, ation of whey proteins occurs, as the final
1989; Corredig and Dalgleish, 1999; Fairise temperature of milk generally does not exceed
et al., 1999). When milk is heated at a pH < ~6.8, 70 °C (Singh and Creamer, 1991). Oldfield
the complexes remain attached to the surface of (1998) reported only small decreases in the levels
the micelles but, on heating at more alkaline pH of native α-lactalbumin and BSA during evapora-
values, the complexes are found in the serum tion, and no apparent denaturation of
phase (Creamer and Matheson, 1978; Mohammed β-lactoglobulin. However, association of whey
and Fox, 1987; McKenna et al., 1999). Oldfield proteins with casein micelles can occur during
(1998) showed that, as well as interacting with evaporation, probably because decreasing pH
casein micelles, β-lactoglobulin forms disulphide- reduces protein charge, facilitating association
linked aggregates with bovine serum albumin reactions (Oldfield, 1998). Singh (2007) reviewed
(BSA) during the manufacture of milk powder, the interactions of milk proteins during milk
while α-lactalbumin mainly forms hydrophobic- powder manufacture, and related changes during
bonded aggregates. The roles of Maillard reac- drying to changes in micelle structure during the
tions and isopeptide bond formation in changes concentration of milk.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
A BUBBLE REPUTATION
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.

I had never suspected Sweeting of a desire to be “somebody.”


Indeed, the jeunesse dorée, in whose ranks Nature had seemed
unquestioningly to bestow him, is not subject to diffidence, or prone
to the wisdom which justifies itself in a knowledge of its own
limitations. I was familiar with his placid, cherubic face at a minor
club or two, in the Park, in Strand restaurants and Gaiety stalls; and
it had never once occurred to me to classify him as apart from his
fellows of the exquisite guild. If, like Keats, he could appreciate the
hell of conscious failure, its most poignant anguish, I could have
sworn, would borrow from some too-late realization of the correctest
“form” in a hat-brim or shirt-collar. I could have sworn it, I say, and I
should have been, of course, mistaken. Keats may have claimed it
as his poetical prerogative to go ill-dressed, and to object, though
John, to be dubbed “Johnny.” It remained to Sweeting to prove that a
man might be a very typical “Johnny” and a poet to boot. But I will
explain.
One day I entered the reading-room of the Junior Winston and
nodded to Sweeting, who was seated solitary at the newspaper-
table. While I was hunting for the “Saturday Review”—which was
conducting, I had been told, the vivisection of a friend of mine—my
attention was attracted by something actually ostentatious in
Sweeting’s perusal of his sheet, and I glanced across. Judge my
astonishment when I saw in his hands, not “Baily’s” or the “Pink ’Un,”
but the very periodical I sought. I gasped; then grinned.
“Hullo!” I said. “Since when have you taken to that?”
He attempted to reply with a face of wondering hauteur, but gave
up at the first twitch.
“O,” he said rather defiantly, “you lit’ary professionals think no
one’s in it but yourselves.”
“In what?”
“Why, this sort of thing,” he said, tapping the “Saturday”; “the real
stuff, you know.”
“Indeed,” I said, “we don’t. You’re always welcome to the reversion
of my place in it for one.”
“O, me!” he said airily. “It don’t positively apply there, you see,
being a sort of a kind of a professional myself.”
“My Sweet!” I exclaimed. “A professional—you?”
“O, yes,” he said. “Didn’t you know? Write for the ‘Argonaut.’ Little
thing of mine in it last number.”
I felt faint.
“May I see it?” I murmured. “If I don’t mistake, it’s under your
elbow at this moment.”
“Is it?” he answered, blushing flagrantly, “Lor’ bless me, so it is!”
I took it from his hand, opened it, and read, over his undoubted
signature—Marmaduke Sweeting—the title, “The Fool of the Family.”
“Ah!” I thought, “of course. Like title like author.”
But I was wrong. The tale, a veritable conte drolatique, was as
keen and strong as a Maupassant. I had no choice but to take it at a
draught, smacking my lips after. Then I put the paper softly down
and looked across at him. His harmless features were set in a sort of
hypnotic smile, his hat was tilted over his eyes, and he was making
constant mouthfuls of the large silver knob of his stick. My eyes
travelled to and fro between this figure and the figures of print that
were he. What possible connexion could there be between the two? I
thought of Buffon writing in lace ruffles, and all at once recognized a
virtue in immaculate shirt-cuffs, and decided to consult some
fashionable hosier about raising my price per thousand words. In the
meantime my respect for Sweeting was born.
“So,” I said, “you are somebody after all?”
“Am I?” he answered, grinning bucolic. “Glad you’ve found it out.”
“Why,” I said, “honestly there’s genius in this story; but nothing to
what you’ve shown in concealing that you had any. There must be
much more to come out of the same bin.”
He flushed and laughed and wriggled, as I walked over and sat
beside him.
“O, I dare say!” he said. “Hope so, anyhow.”
“Not a doubt. What made you think of it, now?”
“O! I thought of it,” he said; and, after all, there was no better reply
to an idiotic question. I was beginning humbly to appraise intellectual
self-sufficiency at its value, and to appreciate the hundred disguises
of reason.
I saw a good deal of Sweeting, on his own initiative, after this. He
would visit me in my rooms, and discuss—none too sapiently, I may
have thought in other circumstances, and with the most ingenuous
admiration for his own abilities—the values of certain characters as
portrayed by him in a brilliant series, “The Love-Letters of a
Nonconformist,” which had immediately followed in the “Argonaut”
“The Fool of the Family,” and was taking the town by storm. Thus,
“What d’ee think of that old Lupin, last number,” he would chuckle,
“with his calling virtue an ‘emu,’ don’tcherknow?”
“Ha, yes!” I would correct him, with a nervous laugh. “ ‘Anæmia’
was the word. You meant it, of course.”
“Why, didn’t I say it?” he would answer. “It’s got a big swallow
anyhow”; and then he would check himself suddenly, and, without
further explanation, eye me, and begin to whistle.
Now I might recall the passage to which he referred (to wit, that
every red blood corpuscle, being a seed peccancy, so to speak,
made virtue an anæmia) and try to puzzle out a quite new
significance in it. Suspecting that its author’s apparent naïveté was
only assumed, I was respectfully guarded in my answers, and, when
he was gone, would curiously ponder the perspicacious uses to
which he would put them. He did not consult me, I felt, as an oracle;
but rather drew upon me for the vulgar currency of thought, to which
his exclusiveness was a stranger. He was very secret about his own
affairs; though I understood that he was becoming quite an important
“name” in the literary world. Ostensibly he was not, after that first
essay, to be identified with the “Argonaut,” though any one, having
an ounce of the proper appreciation, could scarcely fail to mark in
the “Love-Letters” the right succession of qualities which had made
the earlier story notable. Indeed, he suffered more than any man I
knew from the penalties attaching to the popular author. The number
of communications, both signed and anonymous, which he received
from admirers was astonishing. Scarce a day passed but he brought
me specimens of them to discuss and laugh over. I did not, I must
admit, think his comments always in good taste; but then I was not
personally subject to the flattering pursuit, and so may have been no
more constituted to judge than a monk is of a worldling.
These testimonies to his fame were from every sort of individual—
the soldier, the divine, the poet, the painter, the actor (and more
especially the actress), the young person with views, the social
butterfly, the gushling late of the schoolroom, the woman of
sensibility late of the latest lifelong passion for art or religion, and
finding, as usual, the taste of life sour on her lips after a recent
debauch of sentiment. They all found something in the “Love-Letters”
to meet their particular cases—some note of subtle sympathy, some
first intimation to their misunderstood spirits of a kindred emotion
which had felt, and could lay its finger with divine solace on the spot.
No longer would they suffer a barren grievance—that hair-shirt which
not a soul suspected but to giggle over. To take, for example, from
the series a typical sentence which served so many for a text—
“To whom does the materialist cry his defiance—to whom but to
God? He cannot rest from baiting a Deity whose existence he
denies. He forgets that irony can wring no response from a vacuum.”
A propos of which wrote the following:—

A Half-pay General.—Don’t tell me, Sir, but you’ve


served, like me, a confounded ungrateful country, and learned
your lesson! Memorialize the devil rather than the War Office.
You’ve hit it off in your last sentence to a T.

A Chorus Girl.—Dear Sir,—You mean me to understand,


I know, and you’re quite right. The British public has no more
ears than a ass, or they’d reconise who ought to be playing
Lotta in “The Belle of Battersea.” It’s such a comfort you can’t
tell. Please forgive this presumptious letter from a stranger.—
Yours very affectionately,
Dolly.

An Apostolic Fisherman.—I like your metaphor. I would


suggest only “ground-baiting a Deity” as more subtly
applicable to the tactics of a worldling. Note: “And Simon
Peter said, ‘I go a-fishing.’ ”

Take, again, this excerpt: “Doctors’ advice to certain patients to


occupy their minds recalls the Irishman’s receipt for making a
cannon, ‘Take a hole and pour brass round it.’ ” Of which a “True
Hibernian” wrote—

Sir,—I’ve always maintained that the genuine “bull,”


fathered on my suffering country, came from the loins of the
English lion. Murder, now! How could a patient occupy his
doctor’s mind as well as his own, unless he was beside
himself? And then he’d have no mind at all.

Or take, once more and to end, the sentence: “The Past is that
paradoxical possession, a Shadow which we would not drop for the
Substance”; which evoked the following from “One who has felt the
Weariness, the Fever, and the Fret”—

How strangely and exquisitely phrased! It brings, I know not


how, the memory of the Channel before me. I have only
crossed it once; but, O! the recollection! the solemn moving
waters to which my soul went out!

These are specimens, but a few, of the responses wrung by


Sweeting from the human chords he touched. There were, in
addition, prayers innumerable for autographs, requests for the
reading of manuscripts, petitions for gratis copies of his works, to be
sold for any and every charity but the betterment of impecunious
authors. He fairly basked in the sunshine of a great reputation. There
was only one flaw in his enormous self-satisfaction. By a singular
perversity and most inexplicable coincidence, every one of these
signed documents was without an address. But, after all,
coincidence, which is only another name for the favouritism of Fate,
must occasionally glut itself on an approved subject. Sweeting was
in favour with the gods, and enjoyed “a high old time of it,”
principally, perhaps, because he did not appear to be ambitious of
impressing any “set” but that with which he was wont to forgather,
and above which he made no affectation now of rising superior.
I had an example one evening of this intellectual modesty, when
casually visiting the Earl’s Court grounds. There I encountered my
friend, the centre and protagonist of a select company in the
enclosure. All exquisitely wore exquisite evening dress (for myself I
always scornfully eschewed the livery), and all gravitated about
Sweeting with the unconscious homage which imbecility pays to
brains—“the desire of the moth for the star.” I could see at once that
he was become their Sirius, their bright particular glory, reflecting
credit upon their order. And he, who might have commanded the
suffrages of the erudite, seemed content with his little conquest—to
have reached, indeed, the apogee of his ambition—a one-eyed king
among the blind. These suffered my introduction with some
condescension, as a mere larva of Grub Street. They knew
themselves now as the stock from which was generated this real
genius. As for me, I was Gil Blas’s playwright at the supper of
comedians. And then, at somebody’s initiative, we were all
swaggering off together along the walks.
Now, I had always had a sort of envy of the esprit de ton which
unites the guild of amiable gadflies; and, finding myself here, for all
my self-conscious intellectual superiority, of the smallest account, I
grew quickly sardonic. If I knew who wrote the “Heptameron,” I didn’t
know, even by sight, the Toddy Tomes who was setting all the town
roaring and droning with his song, “Papa’s Perpendicular Pants.” It is
a peevish experience to be “out of it,” even if the it is no more
intelligible than a Toddy Tomes’s topical; and gradually I waxed quite
savage. Reputation is only relative after all. There is no popular road
to fame. As an abstract acquisition, it may be said to pertain at its
highest to the man who combines quick perceptions with adaptive
sympathies. I was not that man. In all, save exclusively my own
company, I felt “out of it,” awkward because resentful, and resentful
because awkward. I despised these asses, however franked by
Sweeting, yet coveted, vainly, the temporary grace of seeming at
home with them. I got very cross. And then we alighted on Slater.
I knew it for his name by Sweeting’s greeting him in response to
his hail. He was seated at a little table all by himself, drinking
champagne, and alternately turning up and biting the ends of a red
tag of beard, and luridly pulling at a ponderous cigar. He was a
small, dingy person, so obviously inebriated, that the little human
clearing in which he sat solitary was nothing more than the formal
recognition of his state. He also, it was evident, to my disgust,
despised the conventions of dress, but without any of those qualms
of self-consciousness with which I was troubled. He lolled back, his
hat crushed over his eyes, a hump of dicky and knotted tie escaping
from his waistcoat-front, his disengaged thumb hooked into an arm-
hole—as filthy a little vagabond, confident and maudlin and truculent
in one, as you could wish. And he hailed Sweeting as a familiar.
My friend stopped, with a rather sheepish grin.
“Hullo, Slater!” said he. “A wet night, ain’t it?”
Our little group came chuckling all about the baboon. Even then, I
noticed, I was the one looked upon with most obvious disfavour by
the surrounding company.
“Look here,” said Sweeting, suddenly gripping me to the front.
“Here’s one of your cloth, Slate’. Let me introjuce you,” and he
whispered in my ear, “Awfully clever chap. You’ll like him when you
know.”
I suppose my instant and instinctive repulsion was patent even to
the sot. He lurched to his feet, and swept off his crumpled hat with
an extravagant bow. Sweeting’s pack went into a howl of laughter. It
was evident they were not unacquainted with the creature, and
looked to him for some fun.
“My cloth, sir?” vociferated the beast. “Honoured, sir, ’m sure, sir.
Will you allow me to cut my coat according to it, sir? Has any
gentleman a pair of scissors? Just the tails, sir, no more—quite large
enough for me; and you’d look very elegant in an Eton jacket.”
I tried to laugh at this idiotic badinage, and couldn’t.
“O, crikey, wouldn’t he!” said a vulgar onlooker. “Like a sugar-
barrel in a weskit.”
Then, as everybody roared, I lost my temper.
“Don’t be a fool,” whispered Sweeting. “It’s the way he’ll get his
change out of you.”
“Change!” I snapped furious. “No change could be for the worse
with him, I should think. Let me pass, please!”
The odious wretch was pursuing me all the time I spoke, while the
others hemmed me in, edging me towards him and roaring with
laughter. Sweeting himself made no effort to assist me, but stood to
one side, irresistibly giggling, though with a certain anxiety in his
note.
“Call off your puppies!” I cried ragingly, and with the word was sent
flying into the very arms of Slater. I felt something rip, and at a blow
my hat sink over my eyes; and then a chill friendly voice entered into
the mêlée.
“O, look here, Slater, that’ll do, you know!”
I wrenched my eyes free. My champion was not Sweeting, but
Voules, Sir Francis Voules, of whom more hereafter. He was cool
and vicious, and as faultlessly dressed as the others, but in a
manner somehow superior to the foppery of their extreme youth. He
carried a light overcoat on his arm.
“O! will it?” said Slater.
“Yes, I said so,” said Voules, pausing a moment from addressing
me to scan him. Slater slouched back to his table. Nobody laughed
again.
In the meantime, Sir Francis was helping me to restore my hat to
shape, and to don his overcoat.
“Yours is split to the neck,” he said. “Now, let’s go.”
He took my arm, and we strolled off together. The crowd, quite
respectful, parted, and we were engulfed in it.
I was grateful to Voules, of course, but inexplicably resentful of his
cool masterfulness. Truth to tell, we were souls quite antipathetic;
and now he had put me right—with everybody but myself. In a
helpless attempt to restore that balance, I snarled fiercely, smacking
fist into palm—
“I’ll have the law of that beast! You know him, it seems? I can’t
congratulate you on your friends.”
“Sweeting was most to blame,” said Voules quietly.
I grunted, and strode on fuming.
“But, after all,” said Voules, “the poor ass had to back up his
confederate.”
I glanced at him as we walked.
“His confederate?”
“Of course. Didn’t you know? Slater really writes the things for
which Sweeting gets the credit.”
“O, come, Voules! Here’s one of your foolhardy calumnies. You
really should be careful. Some day you’ll get into trouble.”
“O, very well!”
“You talk as if it were an open secret.”
“You know Sweeting as well as I. Do you recognize his style in the
Nonconformist lucubrations? Possibly you’ve had letters from him?”
“I’ve some specimens of letters to him now—letters from admirers.
If anything were needed to refute your absurd statement, there they
are in evidence.”
He gave a little dry laugh; then touched my sleeve eagerly.
“You wouldn’t think it abusing a confidence to show me those
letters?”
“I don’t know why. Sweeting’s laid no embargo on me.”
“Very well. If you’ll let me, I’ll come home with you now.”
I stumbled on in a sort of haze.
I did not believe this to be any more than a mad shot in the dark.
Sir Francis was one of those men who made mischief as Pygmalion
made Galatea. He fell in love with his own conceptions—would go
any lengths to gratify his passion for detraction. Do not suppose,
from his prefix, that he was a bold, bad baronet. He was just an actor
of the new creation—belonged to what was known by doyens of the
old Crummles school as the be-knighted profession. The stage was
an important incident in his social life, and he seldom missed a
rehearsal of any piece to which he was engaged.
“You know this Slater?” I said, as I drove in my latchkey. “As
what?”
“As a clever, disreputable, and perfectly unscrupulous journalist.”
“It's preposterous! What could induce him to part with such a
notoriety?”
“The highest bidder, of course.”
“What! Sweeting? If he’s still the simple Johnny you’d have him
be?”
“I’m yet to learn that the simple Johnny lacks vanity.”
“But, for him, such an unheard-of way to gratify it!”
“Opportunism, sir. There are more things in the Johnny’s
philosophy than we dream of.”
“Well, I simply don’t believe it.”
Voules read, with an immobile face, the letters which Sweeting
had left with me. At the end he looked up.
“Are you open to a bet?”
“Can’t afford it.”
“Never mind, then.” He rose. “Truth for its own sake will do.
Anyhow, I presume you don’t object to countering on Slater?”
“O, do what you like!”
“Thanks. Would you wish to be in at the death?”
“Just as you please.”
“You see,” said he, with a pleasant affectation of righteousness, “if
my surmise is correct—and you’re the first one I’ve ventured to
confide in—it’s my plain duty to prick a very preposterous bubble.
Thank you for lending yourself to the cause of decency. Don’t say
anything until you hear from me. Good-bye!”—and he was gone,
followed by my inclination, only my inclination, to hurl a book after
him.
I sat tight—always the more as I swelled over the delay—till, on
the third day following, Sweeting called on me. He came in very
shamefaced, but with a sort of suppressed triumph to support his
abjectness.
“I couldn’t help it, you know,” he said; “and I gave him a bit of my
mind after you’d gone.”
“Indeed,” I answered good-humouredly; “that was what you
couldn’t well afford, and it was generous of you.”
He was blankly impervious to the sarcasm. Had it been otherwise,
my new-fledged doubts had perhaps fluttered to the ground. After a
moment I saw him pull a paper from his pocket.
“Look here,” he said, vainly trying to suppress some emotion,
which was compound, in suggestion, of elation and terror. “You’ve
made your little joke, haven’t you, over all those other people
forgettin’ to put their addresses? Well, what do you think of that for
the Prime Minister?”
I took from his hand a sheet of large official-looking paper, and
read—
Dear Sir,—You may have heard of my book, “The
Foundations of Assent.” If so, you will perhaps be interested
to learn that I am contemplating a complete revision of its text
in the light of your “Love-Letters.” They are plainly
illuminating. From being a man of no assured opinions, I have
become converted, through their medium, to a firm belief in
the importance of the Nonconformist suffrage. Permit me the
honour, waiving the Premier, to shake by the hand as fellow-
scribe the author of that incomparable series. I shall do myself
the pleasure to call upon you at your rooms at nine o’clock
this evening, when I have a little communication to make
which I hope will not be unpleasing to you. Permit me to
subscribe myself, with the profoundest admiration, your
obedient servant,
J. A. Burleigh.

“Well,” I murmured, feeling suffocated, “there’s no address here


either.”
“No,” he answered; “but, I say, it’s rather crushing. Won’t you come
and help me out with it?”
“What do you want me for?” I protested. “I’ve no wish to be
annihilated in the impact between two great minds. You aren’t
afraid?”
“O, no!” he said, perspiring. “It’ll be just a shake, and ‘So glad,’ and
‘Thanks, awfully,’ I suppose, and nothing more to speak of. But you
might just as well come, on the chance of helping me out of a tight
place. It’s viva voce, don’tcherknow—not like writin’, with all your wits
about you. And I shall get some other fellows there, too, so’s we
aren’t allowed to grow too intimate; and you might as well.”
“I wonder what the ‘communication’ is?” I mused.
“O, nothin’ much, I don’t suppose,” said Sweeting, with a blushing
nonchalance. But it was evident that he had pondered the delirious
enigma and emerged from it Sir Marmaduke.
“Well,” I concluded rather sourly, “I’ll come.”
He went away much relieved, and I fell into a fit of stupor. In the
afternoon a telegram from Voules reached me, “Be at Sweeting’s
8.45 to-night.”
At a quarter to nine I kept my appointment. Sweeting was
insufferably well-to-do, and his rooms were luxurious. They were
inhabited at the moment by an irreproachable and almost silent
company. Among them I encountered many of the young gentlemen
who had been witnesses of, and abettors in, my discomfiture the
other night. But they were all too nervous now to presume upon the
recognition—too oppressed with the stupendous nature of the
honour about to be conferred upon their host—too self-weighted with
their responsibility as his kindred and associates. They could only
ogle him with large eyes over immensely stiff collars, as he moved
about from one to another, panic-struck but radiant. It was the
crowning moment of his life; yet its sweeter aftermath, I could feel,
reposed for him in the sleek necks of champagne-bottles just visible
on a supper-table in the next room. He longed to pass from the test
to the toast, and the intoxicating memory of a triumph happily
accomplished. And then suddenly Slater came in.
He was not expected, I saw in a moment. Indeed, how could such
a death’s-head claim place at such a feast? He was no whit
improved upon my single memory of him, unless, to give the little
beast his due, a shade less inebriated. But he was as grinning,
cocksure, and truculent a little Bohemian as ever. Sweeting stared at
him aghast.
“Good Lord, Slate’,” said he, “what brings you here, now?”
“Why, your wire, old chap,” said the animal.
“I never sent one, I swear.”
“Oho!” cries Slater, glaring. “D’ you want to go back on your word?
Ain’t I fine enough for this fine company?” and he pulled a dirty scrap
of paper out of his pocket, and screeched, “Read what you said
yourself, then!”
The telegram went round from hand to hand. I read, when it came
to my turn: “Come supper my rooms 8.45 to-night. M. Sweeting.”
“I never sent it,” protested our host. “It must be a hoax. Look here,
Slate’. The truth is, the Prime Minister wrote he wanted to make my
acquaintance, because—because of the ‘Letters,’ you know; and—
and he’s due here in a few minutes.”
The creature grinned like a jackal.
“My eyes, what fun!” he said. “I shall love to see you two meet.”
“There’s—there’s fizz in the next room, Slate’,” said the miserable
Sweeting.
“You needn’t tell me,” said Slater. “I’d spotted it already.”
And then, before another word could be said, the door was
opened, and the guest of the evening announced.
He came in smiling, ingratiatory, the familiar willowy figure in
pince-nez. We all rose, and the stricken Sweeting advanced to meet
him. The great man, looking, it is true, a little surprised over his
reception, held out his hand cordially.
“And is this——” he purred—and paused.
Sweeting did not answer: he was beyond it; but he nodded, and
opened his mouth, as if to beg that the “communication” might be
posted into it, and the matter settled off-hand.
“I did not, I confess,” said the Premier, glancing smilingly round,
“expect my little visit of duty—yes, of duty, sir—to provoke this signal
welcome on the part of a company in which I recognize, if I mistake
not, a very constellation of the intellectual aristocracy.”
Here a youth, with a solitaire in his eye, and a vague sense of
parliamentary fitness, ejaculated “Hear, hear!” and immediately
becoming aware of the enormity, quenched himself for ever.
“It makes,” went on the right hon. gentleman, “the strict limit to my
call, which less momentous but more exacting engagements have
obliged me to prescribe, appear the more ungracious. In view of this
enforced restriction, I have equipped myself with a single question
and a message. Your answer to the first will, I hope—nay, I am
convinced—justify the tenor of the second.”
He released, with a smile, the hand which all this time he had
retained, much to Sweeting’s embarrassment, in his own. Finding it
restored to him, Sweeting promptly put it in his pocket, like a tip.
“I ask,” said the Premier, “the author of ‘The Love-Letters of a
Nonconformist’ to listen to the following excerpt” (he produced a
marked number of the “Argonaut” from his pocket) “from his own
immortal series, as preliminary to some inquiry naturally evoked
thereby”—and he read out, with the intonation of a confident orator:
“ ‘We have (shall I not declare it, my sweet?) the most beautiful
women and the most beautiful poets in the world—two very good
things, but the latter unaccountable. Passion, in perpetuating,
idyllically refines upon the features of its desire; hence the
succession of assured physical loveliness in a race which, however
insensible to the appeals of emotional and intellectual beauty, can
understand and worship the beauty that is plain to see.’ ”
Here the reader paused, and looking over his glasses with a smile,
very slightly shook his head, and murmuring, “The beauty that is
plain to see! H’m! a fence that I will recommend to Rosebery,”
continued, “ ‘Passion endows passion, far-reaching, to bribe the gods
with a compound interest of beauty. It touches heaven in imagination
through its unborn generations. It tops the bunker of the world, and,
soaring, drops, heedless of Time the putter, straight into the
eighteenth hole of the empyrean.”
The Premier stopped again, and, looking gravely at Sweeting,
asked, “What is the eighteenth hole of the empyrean?”
Now I expected my friend to reveal himself, to sally brilliantly,
referring his questioner, perhaps, to some satire in the making, some
latter-day Apocalypse of which here was a sample extracted for bait
to the curious. Well, he did reveal himself, but not in the way I hoped.
He just strained and strained, and then dropped his jaw with the
most idiotic little hee-haw of a laugh I ever heard, and—that was all.
The other, looking immensely surprised, repeated his question:
“What, sir, I ask you, is the eighteenth hole of the empyrean?”
“Why, the one the Irishman poured brass round.”
I started. It was not Sweeting who spoke, but Slater. The little
demon stood grinning in the background, his tongue in his cheek,
and his hands in his trousers pockets.
“H’mph!” said the Prime Minister. “Very apt, sir. I recall the
witticism. It is singularly applicable at the moment to the
reorganization of the Liberal party. ‘Take a hole and pour brass round
it.’ Exactly.”
His manner, there was no denying it, was extremely severe as he
again addressed the perspiring Sweeting—
“Once more, sir,” he said, “I resume our discussion of a passage,
the intellectual rights in which you would seem to have made over to
your friends.” And, with a positive scowl, he continued his reading.
“ ‘So well’ (writes the impassioned Nonconformist) ‘for the national
appreciation of beauty that is physical. On the other hand (tell me,
dear. It would come so reassuringly from your lips), what can
account for the spasmodic recurrence in our midst of the inspired
singer? What makes his reproduction possible among a people
endowed with tunelessness, innocent of a metrical ear?’ ”
Quite abruptly the Prime Minister ended, and, deliberately folding
his paper, hypnotized with a searching stare his unhappy examinee.
“The question, Mr. Sweeting,” said he, “is before the House. You
will recognize it as ending—with some psychologic subtlety, to be
continued in our next—number 10—the last published of the
“Argonaut.” To me, I confess, the answer can be, like the Catholic
Church, only one and indivisible. Upon the question of your
conformity with my view depends the nature of the communication
which I am to have the pleasure, conditionally, of making to you.
Plainly, then, sir, what makes possible the spasmodic recurrence of
the inspired singer in the midst of a people endowed with
tunelessness and innocent of a metrical ear? I feel convinced you
can return no answer but one.”
A dead silence fell upon the room. Sweeting scratched his right
calf with his left foot, and giggled. Then in a moment, yielding the last
of his wits to the unendurable strain, he gave all up, and, wheeling
upon Slater—
“O, look here, Slate’!” he said. “What does?” and without waiting
for the answer, drove himself a passage through his satellites, and
collapsed half dead upon a sofa.
The Premier, with an amazing calm, returned the “Argonaut” to his
pocket.
“Surely, sir,” said he, “this is inexplicable; but” (he made a
denunciatory gesture with his hands) “it remains to me only to inform
you that, conditional on your right reply to your own postulate, it was
to have been my privilege to acquaint you of His Majesty’s intention
to bestow upon you a Civil List pension of £250 a year; which now, of
course——”
He was interrupted by Slater—
“O, that’s all one, sir! Fit the cap on the right head. The answer’s
‘Protection,’ isn’t it? I ought to know, as I wrote, and am writing, the
stuff.”
“You, sir!”
All eyes were turned upon the beastly little genius, as he stood
ruffling with greed and arrogance, and thence to the sofa.
“O, shut up!” said Sweeting feebly. “It was only a joke. I paid him,
handsome I did, to let me have the kudos and letters and things.
He’d the best of the bargain by a long chalk.”
“He-he!” screeched Slater. “Why, you fool, did you think merit
earned such recognition in this suffering world? Hope you enjoyed
reading ’em, Sweet, as I did writing ’em.” He turned, half-cringing,
half-defiant, upon the guest. “I’m the author of the ‘Love-Letters,’ sir
—honour bright, I am; and I wrote every one of the testimonials, too,
that that ass sets such store by. You’ll take those into consideration, I
hope.”
“I shall, sir,” thundered the other—“in my estimate of a fool and his
decoy.”
He blazed round and snatched up his hat.
“Make way, gentlemen!” he roared, and strode for the door.
A slip of pasteboard fluttered from his hand to the carpet; he flung
wide the portal, banged it to behind him, and was gone.
Some one, in a sort of spasmodic torpor, picked up the card, and
immediately uttered a gasping exclamation. We all crowded round
him, and, reading the superscription at which he was pointing, “Mr.
Hannibal Withers, Momus Theatre,” exchanged dumbfounded
glances.
“Why, of course,” stuttered a pallid youth; “it was Withers, Voules’s
pal; I reco’nize him now. He’s the Prime Minister’s double, you know,
and—and he’s been and goosed us.”
“What!” screamed Slater.
But I was off in a fit of hysterical laughter.
It was actually a fact. It is a mistake to suppose that your
professional scandal-monger is prepared to build except on a
substratum of truth. Voules had pricked the bubble as he had
promised. The bargain, it was admitted, had been struck—on
Slater’s side for such a consideration as would submerge him in
champagne had he desired it. He had written and sent the
manuscripts to Sweeting, who had had them typed, and passed
them on to the “Argonaut” as his own. But the real author knew that
his tenure was insecure so long as the other’s colossal vanity was
not ministered to. Hence the correspondence, in which the little
monster burlesqued his own lucubrations. It might all have ended in
a case of perpetual blackmail (Sweeting never could see beyond the
end of his own nose) had not the bait answered so instantly to
Voules’s calculations.
There was a bitter attack on the immorality of the stage in the next
number of the “Argonaut,” which subsequently had to compound with
Voules under threat of an action for libel. But Sweeting had his wish.
He was “somebody,” as never yet. Until he took his notoriety for a
long sea-voyage, he was more crushingly than any gentleman in the
“Dunciad” “damn’d to fame.”
A POINT OF LAW
BY A CAPTIOUS LITIGANT

Given a wet night on circuit, a bar parlour with a chattering fire, a


box of tobacco, a china bowl of punch, and a mixed forensic
company to discuss the lot, and what odds would you lay for or
against the chances of a good story or so?
Grope in your memory (before you answer) among legal
collectanea and the newspaper reports of famous, or infamous,
trials. What then? “Lord!” you admit, “these bones unearthed seem
wretched remains indeed! I find your grooms of the horsehair, young
and old, cracking their ineffable chestnuts for the benefit of an
obsequious tipstavery; I find a bench so conservative that, though it
be pitched in the very markets of chicanery, it is never to be won
from its affected ignorance of those topical affairs which are matters,
else apart, of common knowledge; I find the profession for ever
given to whet its wits on a thousand examples of resourcefulness
and impudence, and most often failing in the retort piquant.” Give me
a cheeky witness to cap the best drollery ever uttered by counsel.
Legal facetiæ, forsooth! The wit that tells is the wit that can cheat the
gallows, not send to it. Any dullard can hang a dog.
Look at the autobiographies of your retired legal luminaries: what
scurvy bald reading they make as a rule. Look at—but no: he rests in
Abraham’s bosom; he is studying the Mosaic law; we may be in
need of him again some day.
There is an odd family likeness between the personalia of lawyers
and of actors. The fellows, out of court, stripped of their
melodramatic trappings, can’t raise a laugh which would tickle any
one less than a bishop. They are obsessed with the idea of their own
importance. Much self-inflation has killed in them all sense of
proportion. They prove themselves, the truth is, dull dogs on
revision.
The law is not so exhausting a study as it appears on first sight to
a layman. Given an understanding of its main principle, which is
syllogism, and there you are already in its Holy of Holies. As, for
instance, I call a man a beast: a cheetah is a beast: I have called the
man a cheater—ergo, he can proceed against me for defamation.
There is its rubric in a nutshell—perfectly simple.
However, exceptis excipiendis, there were Curran, and Erskine,
and some others. There was also Brindley, the great Crown
Prosecutor, whose eloquence was of such persuasiveness that it
was said the very Bench hung upon his word. I had the chance to
meet him once, in such a place and on such a night as I began by
describing. It was in the “Maid’s Head” at Norwich, and my
experience is at your service.
It had, I knew, been a full list and a varied; yet the great man, it
seemed, had found nothing in it all to stimulate his humorous
faculties. The liveliness was all supplied by a pert Deputy Clerk of
the Peace, whose bump of reverence was as insignificant as his
effrontery was tremendous. The Bar began by tolerating him; went
on to humour his sallies; chilled presently over his presumption; grew
patronizing, impatient, and at last rude. He didn’t care; nor I,
certainly. His readiness was the only relief from a congested
boredom.
The talk drifted, in the course of the evening, upon legal posers—
circumstantial evidence, ex-statutory cases, and so forth. There were
some dull examples proffered, and I observed, incidentally, that the
Law, when it couldn’t hark back to precedent, was wont to grow a
little hazy and befogged. Many solemn conundrums were
propounded; but the Deputy Clerk, as usual, pushed himself to the
front with an impertinence—
“If I slink out of the company of a bore, am I guilty of stealing from
his person?”
“Pooh, pooh!” said Brindley, with contempt. “Don’t be flippant, sir.”
The Deputy Clerk was not a whit abashed.
“Sir, to you,” he said. “If that isn’t liked, I’ll propose another. If a
woman is divorced from her husband, and a child is born to her
before the decree is made absolute, is that child, lawfully begot,
legitimate or illegitimate?”
They were glad to take this seriously. I forget what the decision
was—that, given the necessary interval between the decree and its
confirmation, I think, the situation was virtually impossible.
“Very well,” said the Deputy Clerk. “But perhaps one can conceive
such a question rising. Let it pass, however; and answer me this,
gentlemen: If one is imprisoned unjustly—that is to say, for a crime
one has not committed—and, breaking out of prison, gives proof of
one’s innocence, can one be indicted for prison-breaking?”
This, at least, was a fair poser, and discussion on it grew actually
warm.
“Bosh!” said a fierce gentleman. “You ain’t going to justify your
defiance of the law by arguing that the law is liable to make an
occasional mistake—don’t tell me!”
Here a very young barrister dared the revolutionary sentiment that
the law, being responsible in the first instance to itself, might be
treated, if caught-stumbling in flagranti delicto, as drastically as any
burglar with a pistol in his hand. He was called, almost shouted,
down. The suggestion cut at the very root of jurisprudence. The law,
like the king who typified it, could do no wrong; witness its time-
honoured right to pardon the innocent victims of its own errors.
“It may detain and incarcerate one for being only a suspected
person,” said Brindley. “That its suspicions may prove unfounded, is
nothing. It must be cum privilegio, or the constitution goes. A nice
thing if the Crown could be put on its defence for an error in
judgment.”
“A very nice thing,” said the Deputy Clerk.
Brindley snorted at him. “Perhaps,” said he sarcastically, “the
gentleman will state a case.”
The gentleman desired nothing better. I would have backed him to
hold his own, anyhow; but, in this instance, I was gratified to gather
from his manner that he had a real story to tell. And he had.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “it occurred within my father's memory; but
my own is good enough to reproduce it literally. It made a rare stir in
the Norwich of his day, and quite fluttered, I assure you, the
dovecots of the profession.
“The parties chiefly concerned in it were three: old Nicholas
Browbody, his ward Ellen, and Mr. George Hussey, who was put on

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