DR. A. E. NAISH'S PAPER 323 



of no use to digestion, but are already present in 

 larger quantities in the infant's own blood ; further 

 that the " protective substances" only appear in milk 

 when the mammary gland is not in full activity, and 

 even when present are destroyed in the child's 

 intestine after the first few days of life. This 

 thorough investigation will help to remove from the 

 minds of many of us the uneasy feeling that by 

 cooking milk we are depriving the child of some 

 unknown living substance which is necessary to its 

 perfect development. 



Turning to the difficult subject of the bacterial 

 content, I do not think that much can be said with 

 certainty so far. Most people would be inclined to 

 give dried milk a high place, owing to the very small 

 number of organisms in it. I am not sure, however, 

 whether the vigorous growth of lactic acid bacilli 

 which occurs in freshly drawn milk is not of advan- 

 tage to the child in the continuous bacterial warfare 

 of its intestine. This of course does not apply to 

 milk as ordinarily delivered at the house, and the 

 advantage may be easily and cheaply attained in dried 

 milk by the addition of a freshly prepared culture in 

 small quantity to each feed. I have had striking 

 evidence of the value of this addition, infants with 

 pallor, sweating, loss of appetite and offensive stools 

 showing almost immediate amelioration of their 

 symptoms and beginning to put on weight rapidly. 



To sum up : we have in dried milk a food which 

 contains the same substances as cow's milk and in the 

 same proportions (except when humanized), which is 

 digestible to a wider range of infants, which has 

 obvious advantages of storage and distribution, and 

 which appears to have no tendency to promote any 

 of the later nutritional disorders. 



