190 



MILK AND ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS 



Halipre* (1904) quotes the case of a child whose weight was 

 increasing at the rate of 7 grammes per day while fed upon sterilised 

 milk. When given raw milk the increase rose to a rate of 30 

 grammes per day. He states that he has seen other similar cases. 

 The period of sterilisation of the milk is not given. 



Hohlfield (1905) published eight cases of children suffering 

 from various stages of mal-nutrition who were fed for the most 

 part upon raw milk ; some, however, received raw milk alternately 

 with boiled milk over periods of about one month. All the children 

 were ill, some of them severely so. Three had only raw milk, two 

 vomited boiled milk, and another put on more weight on raw milk 

 than on boiled milk. The remaining two were twins, of whom 

 the sicklier child was put upon raw milk, and the healthier one had 

 boiled milk. The sicklier one did better than the healthier one. 



These data certainly seem to show that there are cases of sick 

 children where raw milk gives better results than boiled milk ; at 

 the same time the evidence already given shows that many children 

 who are suffering from mal-nutrition do extremely well upon 

 boiled milk. It would not appear to be justifiable to draw con- 

 clusions in regard to the relative nutritive properties of raw and 

 boiled milk in the treatment of healthy babies, as a result of 

 Hohlfield's experiments, where only four babies were given boiled 

 milk, and of those, two had an apparent idiosyncrasy against boiled 

 milk and vomited it after administration. 



Vincent (1906) has published twenty cases of markedly severe 

 mal-nutrition in infants which were fed upon raw milk and did 

 very well. These cases were fed upon the percentage method of 

 feeding, under constant supervision, and often of change of the 

 percentage of ingredients. No case was fed upon boiled milk of 

 a similar percentage mixture. 



Extensive observations were carried out by Finkelstein which 

 are difficult to summarise, and the results are best seen by repro- 

 ducing Finkelstein 's tables. He classified the cases into three groups, 

 as below, where the results obtained in each group are shown. 



GROUP I. (A) Healthy children, that is children with no 

 apparent signs of disease ; under eight weeks of age, and having 

 an average weight of 3600 grammes. 



