PASTEURIZATION 187 



souring and abnormal fermentation. In 1868 the success- 

 ful experiment was made of sending a cargo of heated wine 

 around the world upon the frigate La Sybile. 



Following the Franco-Prussian War, Pasteur studied the 

 diseases of beer and found that this beverage could be pre- 

 served by heating it to a temperature of from 50 to 55 C. 

 for a short time. The pasteurization of beer and wine has 

 been so successful that the process is now in current use to 

 preserve 'these readily decomposable liquors. The appli- 

 cation of the process gave rise to the new term "pasteur- 

 ization," which soon became current in technical lan- 

 guage. 



It was not until 1886 that the distinguished chemist, 

 Soxhlet, advised the heating of milk for infant feeding and 

 described an apparatus for carrying out the process in the 

 home. To Soxhlet will ever remain the merit of having 

 first systematized and popularized the heating and the 

 special care of milk for infant use. In addition to heating 

 the milk, Soxhlet divided the day's quantity into nursing- 

 bottles, so shaped as to be readily cleansed and sterilized; 

 upon the importance of all these points he properly laid 

 stress. Soxhlet made the mistake of regarding milk heated 

 for a brief period at about the temperature of boiling water 

 as sterilized milk. He also placed undue stress upon a spe- 

 cial stopper which hermetically and automatically sealed 

 the flasks in cooling. Soxhlet's methods are still popular 

 in Germany, but the European methods, which to a large 

 extent attempt to sterilize the milk, have thrown consider- 

 able confusion as well as discredit upon the subject of pas- 

 teurization as practised hi America. 



In 1889 Jacobi, who had long practiced and taught the 

 wisdom of heating milk for infant f ceding, makes reference 

 to the use of Soxhlet's apparatus in the "Archives of Pedi- 

 atrics." This is the first reference in American science to 

 the subject. It was soon pointed out by bacteriologists 

 that Soxhlet's process was not sufficient to sterilize the 



