VITAMINE CONTENT OF FOODSTUFFS 261 



General remarks on the nutritive value of milk 



The question of dilution in connection with the use of condensed 

 and dried milk appears also to be of some practical significance. 

 Washburn and Jones (774) have shown that the fat content of milk 

 is likewise of great significance. Working with young pigs, they 

 demonstrated that skimmed milk, as such, does not permit of growth 

 in these animals. Milk with a moderate amount of fat (2.5 per cent) 

 seemed to give the best results, while too much fat (5 per cent) 

 produced rapid growth, the animals being too fat and apathetic. 

 Too great a dilution of the milk was followed by a considerable 

 decrease in its nutritive value, while a very concentrated milk reared 

 young that were excessively fat and weak, the bones showing only 

 two-thirds of their normal strength. Lately, views have appeared 

 which emphasize the exceptional position of milk in nutrition. 

 Freise (I.e. 342), as a result of some rat experiments, expressed the 

 view that the milk was either lacking an important constituent or 

 had lost it during manipulation. He observed, however, that 

 animals on a deficient diet recovered rapidly when an addition of 

 10 per cent dried milk was given, so that milk possesses a splendid 

 supplementary action. The same characteristic is manifested by 

 barley-malt. Honey, cereals, alcoholic extracts of barley-malt, 

 carrots, egg-yolk, beans, casein and smaller amounts of dried milk 

 (less than 10 per cent) no longer show the activity of dried milk. 

 Mattill and. Conklin (775), working with rats, obtained the same 

 results. On ordinary milk the animals grew well at first, but later, 

 especially in 50 to 100 days old females, growth ceased. Autolyzed 

 and ordinary yeast and wheat germ were added, resulting in only 

 temporary improvement; addition of iron and casein was without 

 effect. On the other hand, better results were obtained on adding 

 dried milk, showing that the dilution of the foodstuff given is of 

 significance. Dried milk was shown not to be the ideal food for 

 later stages of life. Here again, a dilution (55 parts dried milk, 

 40 parts starch and 5 parts butter) was of help resulting in normal 

 growth and reproduction. The dilution of dried milk with lard gave 

 the same results as with starch. Addition of 1 per cent yeast 

 resulted in normal growth. For these reasons, the authors raised 

 the question, whether the addition of yeast does not introduce some- 

 thing that is missing in the other combinations, and proposed new 



