MILK AND ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS 



the iron content of human milk and of cows' milk, together with 

 original investigations upon the subject, has been given by Soxhlet 

 (1912). He deals with the theory of Bunge (2, 3, 4), who believed 

 and the belief was supported by his pupils that the infant came 

 into the world with a store of iron in the liver upon which it drew for 

 its development. The iron in the food was apparently not con- 

 sidered of much account. Bunge (i, 2) stated that human milk con- 

 tained 4 mg. per litre, or 0-0004 per cent, of ferrous oxide (Fe a O 8 ). 

 Soxhlet shows that this amount is more than enough to provide 

 the iron required for the child as based upon the estimated require- 

 ments made by Camerer. There is, therefore, no need to call 

 upon the iron which is deposited in the liver from the broken-up 

 red corpuscles. 



The simplest method of demonstrating the wide variations in 

 iron content obtained by various authors will be to tabulate the 

 results in chronological order, subsequently dealing individually with 

 the more important papers. 



Human Milk 



The later results show that human milk contains about r6 

 to 17 mgm. of ferrous oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ) per litre, or from three to 

 four times as much as cows' milk, which contains from 0-3 to 07 

 mgm. of ferrous oxide (Fe,0 3 ) per litre. 



Some variations occur in the iron content in relation to the 

 period of lactation. 



