30 



PHYSIOLOGY OF THE NEW-BORN INFANT. 



very sound principle. Of all the elements of nutrition sugar is digested 

 by the infant the most quickly and the most easily, and doubtless 

 causes a rise in temperature very much to be desired, because of the 

 cooling-off at birth and during the birth-bath. 



Experiment 1 of table 5 is an experiment which should illustrate 

 this utilization of sugar, but there are some objections. In the first 

 place, it was not wise to select a period 3 hours after birth for feeding 

 with sugar; in the second place, it will always be difficult to demonstrate 

 in respiration experiments the utilization of sugar at such a period, for 

 even without sugar the quotient at this period is close to 1.0. But a 

 direct demonstration of this point is unnecessary. The fact that the 

 small intestine of the fetus contains invertin shows that it is equipped 

 for the digestion of carbohydrates, and therefore favors the supposition 

 that the new-born infant should be able to digest cane-sugar without 

 difficulty immediately after birth. 



TABLE 5. 



bottle and breast; same as subject of experiment 28 in table 4; in last 24 hours between the 



meal-times fed with 5x4 grams milk-sugar, last time lj hours before experiment. Crying 



violently for 4 minutes, afterwards half or wholly asleep. 

 2 Breast; same as subject of experiment 23 in table 4; in last 36 hours 5x5 grams grape-sugar, 



last 4 hours and f hour before experiment; sleeping or dozing; now and then vigorous 



movements. 

 Breast; same as subject of experiment 30 in table 4; in the last 24 hours 5x4 grams grape-sugar; 



last feeding 2j hours before experiment; half or wholly asleep. 

 4 Sugar-water at birth; bath; crying about one-half of the time; otherwise restless, kicking, and 



perspiring. 



It would be unreasonable to dispute the fact that mother's milk is 

 the ideal nourishment for the infant. It is well to note, however, that 

 the infant must be born at full term and be healthy. With premature 

 infants and infants with intestinal catarrh or other digestive ailments, 

 which result in diarrhea and rapid loss of weight, it is quite a different 

 matter. 



Recent investigators in this line tend more towards localizing the 

 logical cause of digestive diseases in those organs in which the final 

 katabolism of the food elements takes place, instead of in the mucous 

 membrane of the digestive tract and the accessory digestive glands; 

 indeed, there are many points which favor a pathological retarded 

 development of the oxidative functions of the liver tissues. 



