Recently milk samples from packed milk companies were sent to a laboratory in Germany by the Lahore High Court in response to a petitioner challenging the purity of milk. The laboratory declared the milk samples as fit for human consumption although they contained nearly 2 mg of formalin / formaldehyde per litre of milk. The Court accepted the test report of the German laboratory although formalin is not a constituent of milk and is a carcinogenic agent used as a bactericide in preservation of carcasses of dead persons and animals. Recently, surfing over the internet I found a report published in the New York Times of May 17, 1900 under the title Food Preservative Fatal wherein the Chief Milk Inspector Grady experimented on the feeding of formalin added milk and pure milk to cats. The formalin doctored milk killed the cats in 2 to 3 weeks while those fed on pure milk without formalin grew fat and healthy. We are at the same stage as U.S.A a century ago when milk in the absence of Chillers was preserved by adding formalin as done in our country to-day. DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI