56 MILK AND ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS 



of calcium to the food of the nursing mother was found to be entirely 

 without effect upon the lime content of the milk. 



The authors conclude that there is no general connection between 

 the appearance of rickets in children and the calcium content of 

 the mother's milk. 



Dibbelt (i) claims to have obtained a rise in the calcium content 

 of milk by feeding with various forms of calcium compounds He 

 investigated the milk of three women and obtained the following 

 figures : 



Per cent. 



CaO 

 I. Before feeding with calcium ... 0-0417 



After 7 days on Dr. Wattenberg's Ca milk . 



2. Before feeding with calcium 



After 7 days on 5 gms. di -calcium phosphate per diem 



3. Before feeding with calcium 

 After feeding as in 2. . 



0-0424 

 0-0573 

 0-0852 

 0-0468 

 0-0607 



These observations have not been confirmed by later investigators. 

 Schabad examined the lime content of samples of milk taken 

 both at the beginning and at the end of emptying the gland. The 

 figures confirm the observations of Hunnaeus, since the individual 

 differences between the milk of different women are shown to be 

 greater than between the first and end milk : the content of the first 

 milk is, however, rather higher than that of the end milk. 



Schabad gives the average calcium content as 0-042 per cent, 

 for the mothers of healthy children (forty-nine cases), and 0*039 

 per cent, for the mothers of rickety children (twenty-two cases). 

 Schabad found that the organic constituents appear to be higher 

 in the milk of mothers having rickety children, and he compared 

 the lime content with the total caloric value. As a result of the 

 raised amount of organic constituents, the actual proportion of 

 lime to the caloric value of the milk is lowered, although the actual 

 amount of calcium may not be very low. Addition of lime to the 

 mother's food has no effect on the calcium content of her milk. 



The figures obtained by Schloss showed an average of 0-038 

 per cent, in a number of samples taken both as mixed milk 

 from fifteen to sixteen wet-nurses and in the milk of a number 

 of individual women. Bamberg gives an average of 0*0439 per 

 cent, from twenty-five samples. 



The question of appreciably influencing the lime content of 

 human milk has received further attention from Zuckmayer. This 

 worker fed twenty-six women with large amounts of calcium in 

 the form of tricalcol or tricalcium phosphoretted casein, which was 

 added to their food. Of the twenty-six women, twelve received 

 the calcium for ten days after confinement only, and fourteen re- 

 ceived it for from two months to sixteen days before confinement 

 as well as afterwards. 



