STERILIZATION OF MILK. l6l 



milk and raw milk. These have been performed upon vari- 

 ous animals, and incidentally numerous observations have 

 been made upon children fed with sterilized and with raw 

 milk. The results have been very conflicting. Some have 

 concluded that sterilized milk is as readily assimilated by the 

 body as raw milk, and others have reached the opposite con- 

 clusions (189, 190). But there has been gradually accumu- 

 lating more and more evidence that there is a difference 

 between the ease of digestion of the two. Sterilized milk, it 

 is true, can be digested by the vigorous stomach and can be 

 readily absorbed. It is quite possible for an animal or a man 

 to assimilate plenty of nourishment from sterilized milk. But 

 such milk is not so easy to digest nor so readily assimilated 

 as raw milk. Hence, it follows that for infants, or for those 

 whose digestive organs are weak and delicate, sterilized milk 

 is a less useful food than raw milk. Indeed numerous 

 observations have indicated that the constant use of boiled 

 milk by some children is liable to produce a condition of 

 malnutrition, and, in some cases, certain diseases of children 

 which have been traced to the use of sterilized milk disappear 

 when raw milk is substituted. Too much weight should not 

 be placed upon such facts. Cooking other foods, like eggs, 

 makes them more difficult to digest, but we do not condemn 

 cooking eggs for this reason. Nevertheless, although many 

 children are brought up in a well-nourished condition by the 

 use of boiled milk, it must be recognized that the practice 

 of sterilizing milk decreases the ease of its digestion and 

 thus lessens, to a slight extent, its value as a food. A con- 

 stant diet of sterilized milk is not advisable for children with 

 weak digestive powers. 



4. Sterilization, as ordinarily practiced, does not sterilize. 

 Milk is liable to contain some bacteria with resisting spores, 

 and the high heat of sterilization does not always absolutely 

 destroy them. It is true that the sterilization does, in the large 

 majority of cases, totally destroy all bacteria. But it has been 

 ii 



