APPENDIX H 327 



bined with the experience obtained in other countries, that a bacterial 

 standard affords more control over the care which has been exercised 

 in the collection of the milk, than any other method. 



REFERENCES 



SAVAGE, ' Report to the L.G.B. upon the Bacterial Measurement of Milk 



Pollution,' 1909-10. 

 HOUSTON, ' Report to the L.C.C. on the Bacteriological Examination of 



Milk,' 1905. 



APPENDIX H 



ON METHODS USED FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF BACTERIA IN MILK 

 WITHOUT THE APPLICATION OF HEAT 



AT different times methods have been brought forward which should 

 destroy the bacteria in milk without the application of heat. It 

 may be said at once that none of them has been widely used. All have 

 drawbacks or difficulties, and the excellent results obtained in the 

 feeding of infants, by using milk which has been heated in the home, 

 or (at the present time) dried, render it unlikely that any other 

 known method will receive wide acceptance. 



One of the main difficulties arises in preventing the re-contamina- 

 tion of the milk after treatment, and the further danger that it should 

 as commercial pasteurisation may also do tend to encourage care- 

 lessness or uncleanliness in the course of production. 



Towards the end of last century Budde suggested the addition of 

 hydrogen peroxide to milk in order to preserve it, and to destroy 

 the bacteria. This method gained some little vogue on the Continent, 

 especially in Germany, but it appears to have been almost, if not 

 completely, abandoned at the present time. It was claimed that the 

 milk remained in effect ' raw ' milk, and that the ' vital ' properties 

 were not destroyed. At that time the investigations which have 

 been dealt with in the preceding chapters had not been made, and 

 scientific knowledge as to the artificial feeding of infants was in a 

 rudimentary state. Hydrogen peroxide is split up by catalase, whether 

 this ferment is present in the milk as such or due to subsequent bacterial 

 action. Where sufficient of the reagent is added bacterial growth is 

 inhibited. Difficulty arises in determining how much should be added 

 to milk when the total bacterial content is unknown. Hydrogen 

 peroxide has a very disagreeable taste, so that it is necessary to add 

 only as much as may be required for the purpose of an antiseptic. 



As the physicians of Germany gained experience in the feeding 

 of infants and found the excellent results which are obtained by the 

 use of milk which is heated in the homes, attention was diverted from 

 the need for Buddisation, and the recent literature contains no mention 

 of this method. 



