Proper Nutrition 143 



food when it is more fully developed. This is 

 due to a process of coagulation that takes place 

 in one of the ingredients — the protein — which 

 always alters the form of the milk when taken 

 into the stomach. While a certain amount of 

 protein is present in the milks of all animals 

 and is necessar^^ for tissue building and growth, 

 this protein must not only be coagulable but 

 must curd in a certain specific way in each 

 species of animal for the proper evolution of 

 different digestive tracts. As nutrition is the 

 basis of all physical life, we see how important 

 a function milk performs at the very beginning 

 of existence in developing and preparing the 

 digestive tract for the digestion and assimila- 

 tion of food that must nourish it in later life. 

 Some years ago I brought out this fact that 

 milk through its protein has a developmental 

 as well as a nutritive function to perform.^ 

 The higher mortality following bottle feeding 

 is not the only reason in favor of maternal nurs- 

 ing. In feeding the infant with milk from an- 

 other species — the cow — we are putting a hard 



1 The Scientific Monthly, January, 1916. 



