DIGESTIBILITY 213 



Stutzer 1 who conducted experiments of artificial digestion 

 reports in favor of boiled milk, while similar investigations made 

 by Ellenberger and Hofmeister 2 showed no difference in the 

 digestibility between raw and cooked milk. 



Rodet 3 who experimented with dogs noticed a slight dif- 

 ference in favor of boiled milk. Bruning 4 fed dogs, pigs, rabbits, 

 and guinea pigs with raw and sterilized milk and reports that 

 all results were in favor of the sterilized milk. Bruckler's 5 ex- 

 periments with dogs showed that the animals gained more in 

 weight on sterilized milk than on raw milk, but that their general 

 health, vigor and vitality was better when fed raw milk. Variot 

 observed no difference in the effect on infants between raw and 

 boiled milk. 



The foregoing citations suggest that our knowledge of the 

 digestibility of heated or boiled milk is exceedingly limited and 

 that the results obtained and conclusions drawn by the various 

 investigators are at variance. In experiments with the living 

 organism, and confined to so few-specimens as seems to have been 

 tlie case in the work reported, the factors of individuality and 

 environment are a constant stumbling block, magnifying the 

 limit of experimental error and weakening the conclusiveness of 

 the results. On the basis of our present knowledge it seems 

 reasonable to conclude that, as far as the digestibility of its 

 inherent ingredients is concerned, condensed milk, when con- 

 sumed in properly diluted form, varies but little, if any, from 

 raw milk. The absence in condensed milk of ferments, such as 

 enzymes, which are destroyed in the process and which may 

 assist digestion, may be considered the most important defect 

 of condensed milk from the point of view of digestibility. 



In the case of sweetened condensed milk, however, the nutri- 

 tive ratio of the normal milk is decisively disturbed by the pres- 

 ence of large quantities of sucrose. Even when diluted to far 

 beyond the composition of normal and original fluid milk, the 



1 Stutzer, Landw. Versuchs-Stationen, 40, p. 307. 



2 Ellenberger & Hofmeister, Bericht ueber das Veterinarwesen Koenig- 

 reich Sachsen, 1890. 



3 Rodet, Compt. rend. soc. biol., 48, p. 555. 



* Bruning, Muenchner Mediz., Wochenschrift, No. 8, 1905. 



* Bruning, Zeitschrift fuer Tiermed, 10, p. 110, 1906. 



B Bruckler, Jahrbuch fuer Kinderheilk, 66, p. 343, 1907. 

 fl Variot, Comp. rend., 139, p. 1002, 1904. 



