220 THE MILK QUESTION 



fants of the working class deprived of their mother's milk. 

 With my collaborateurs, MM. Drs. Dufestel, Lazard, and 

 Roger, we have made a study of the artificial feeding with ster- 

 ilized milk, and the results of our experiments are so decisive, 

 each case controlled by weight, and an examination of the 

 organs and functions, that we think our results merit publica- 

 tion. 



The milk received from farmers in the country is heated to 

 108 C. before transportation in the bottles of half a litre, stop- 

 pered with cork and the medical seal. This milk keeps several 

 days without alteration, even during the greatest heat of summer. 

 It is delivered daily at the Belleville dispensary to one hundred 

 to one hundred and fifty infants. Every week or oftener if neces- 

 sary the infants are weighed and inspected with care, records of 

 which are kept. The following are some of the conclusions of the 

 results of twelve years' experience : 



1. The milk sterilized at 108 C. preserves all of its nutritive 

 value. It is not inferior to milk pasteurized at 80 C. or with 

 heating at 100 C. in the apparatus of Soxhlet. 



2. The destruction by the heating of the enzymes, the slight 

 alteration of the lactose, the doubtful precipitation of the citrate 

 of calcium, or the alteration of the lecithins does not affect its 

 assimilability in an appreciable manner. Not one case of infan- 

 tile scurvy has been observed by the dispensary. 



3. Thanks to this sterilized milk we have been able to raise not 

 .only healthy infants, but also atrophic infants, retarded in their 

 development as the result of gastro-intestinal troubles. 



4. Rachitis did not develop in any of the infants. 



5. In three thousand infants of the poorest class about three 

 or four per cent showed themselves incapable of using sterilized 

 milk. 



6. Constipation and anaemia were not rare among the infants 

 raised by this method. On the other hand the summer diarrhoeas 

 were markedly attenuated in severity. 1 



Berlioz reports favorable results from the use of steril- 

 ized milk. He believes that with such milk we are capable 



1 Budin, M. P., "Sur le lait sterilisS," Butt, de VAcad. de md., &* 

 s6r., vol. 37, 1897, p. 685. 



