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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
Fleischmann, Textbook of Dairy Science (1915): donkey milk in the dairy textbook
In the standard German textbook of dairy science, Wilhelm Fleischmann in 1915 called donkey milk “very similar” to mare’s milk and gave its average composition. It was drunk above all in Spain, southern France and Italy.
- Author
- Wilhelm Fleischmann (1837–1920), professor of agriculture and head of the dairy institute in Göttingen
- Work
- Lehrbuch der Milchwirtschaft, 5th revised edition, Berlin: Paul Parey 1915
- Passage
- Part “The science of the nature of milk”, § 29 “Horse, donkey, mule, buffalo, reindeer and camel milk”, p. 144
- Time & place
- 1915 (5th edition) · Göttingen (published in Berlin)
- Type of source
- Textbook (dairy science)
In the original words
What the original says
Der Stutenmilch sehr ähnlich ist die Esels- und Maultiermilch.
Very similar to mare’s milk are donkey milk and mule milk.
Die Milch der Eselinnen, welche im Durchschnitt eine Tragzeit von 365 Tagen haben, wird in Spanien, im südlichen Frankreich und in Italien vielfach genossen.
The milk of jennies, whose gestation lasts 365 days on average, is [according to Fleischmann] widely consumed in Spain, southern France and Italy.
Der Gefrierpunkt der Milch der Eselinnen soll bei — 0,55° liegen.
The freezing point of jennies’ milk is said to be −0.55 °C.
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
A look at the original
What the passage looks like
Page 144 of Fleischmann’s “Lehrbuch der Milchwirtschaft” (5th edition, Berlin 1915), with the paragraph on jennies’ milk and its average composition.
The page comes from a freely accessible digitised copy. Click to open the passage at the library.
Google-Digitalisat via Internet Archive; gemeinfrei
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
Wilhelm Fleischmann was one of the founders of dairy science as an academic discipline in Germany. He headed the dairy research station at Kleinhof-Tapiau in East Prussia and later became professor in Göttingen. His textbook first appeared in 1893 and went through several editions; it served students of agriculture, dairy professionals and control authorities as a standard reference.
The book begins with the “science of the nature of milk”, that is its formation, composition and properties, and then covers production, processing and cheese-making. After cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk, § 29 summarises the milk of other animals that played hardly any role in Germany. The short paragraph on donkey milk is found there.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
Fleischmann groups donkey milk with mare’s milk, which he has just described as rich in water and sugar, low in fat and bluish white. The milk of jennies, he says, is “widely consumed” in Spain, southern France and Italy; he gives their gestation as 365 days.
From the data of several, mostly French investigators he gives an average composition at a specific gravity of 1.033: 89.7 % water, 1.5 % fat, 2.1 % proteins, 6.4 % milk sugar and 0.3 % ash, in total 10.3 % dry matter. He gives the freezing point, with reservation (“is said to”), as −0.55 °.
Unlike older medical works, Fleischmann mentions no therapeutic uses. Donkey milk appears here solely as a food and an object of analysis. Mule milk, by contrast, has “no practical importance whatsoever”.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Timeline
Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk
Each dot is a source from our knowledge archive – from Greek antiquity to the present day.
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Source value
Fleischmann’s textbook was an authoritative work of German dairy science. The passage can be checked page by page as a scan. Fleischmann did not measure the donkey-milk values himself but averaged them from the literature; he names the original investigators.
A matter-of-fact view
The paragraph is purely descriptive. It names distribution, composition and physical values, but no healing effects. It thus stands for the transition of donkey milk from pharmacology to food science.
Today’s assessment
The order of magnitude of the values, little fat and much milk sugar, corresponds to modern analyses; individual figures differ because methods and samples differed. A gestation of about one year is also correct by today’s knowledge.
Our assessment
Fleischmann’s short paragraph is remarkably calm: no healing promises, no legend, just figures and countries of origin. For us it shows how donkey milk was described around 1915 as an entirely ordinary food of southern Europe.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceWilhelm Fleischmann, Lehrbuch der Milchwirtschaft, 5th revised edition, Berlin: Paul Parey 1915, § 29, p. 144 (Google scan on the Internet Archive)
https://archive.org/details/lehrbuchdermilc00fleigoog/page/n186/mode/1up
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.
The source summarised above does not come from DON DONKEY’S® and does not refer to our products. It serves solely to inform about knowledge of donkey milk.
DON DONKEY’S® donkey milk and donkey milk powder are foods. They are not intended to prevent, treat or cure any disease and do not replace medical advice.
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