238 



BACTERIA IN MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS 



milk to one of water, with three ounces of cream and lactose added per gallon, and 

 is given to infants over six months old. * 



The milk having been modified, it is bottled, and the number of bottles and the 

 quantities contained are set out below : 



After bottling, the milk is heated by steam under pressure for some 20-30 minutes, 

 and kept at a temperature of 212 F. for from five to ten minutes. It is allowed to 

 cool, and then is supplied to the consumers. Each mother, on first coming to the 

 depot, is given a leaflet of instructions as to the proper method of using the milk. 

 The method is very simple. When feeding time arrives, all she has to do is to place 

 the bottle, unopened, in some warm water till the milk has reached body tempera- 

 ture. The bottle is then opened, a small teat put on the mouth of the bottle, and 

 the baby takes its milk from the sterilised bottle direct. The use of the long-tube 

 feeding-bottle is obviated. 



This process of humanisation adapts the milk to the infant's digestive organs, the 

 sterilisation kills the germs, and as the bottle is not opened or should not be opened 

 from the time it enters the steriliser until the infant is ready to take milk from it 

 direct (no feeding-bottle should be used) home contamination, unless it is wilful or 

 due to extreme carelessness, is prevented. 



It may be convenient briefly to summarise the chief advantages and disadvantages 

 of this system : Advantages. (I) Infants fed on depot milk receive a modified milk 

 suited to their digestive capacities. (2) The milk is free from injurious and other 

 bacteria. (3) The mother is saved labour, and mistakes are prevented, as the 

 preparation of food for infants, etc. , is not necessary if modified and sterilised milk 

 is obtained ready prepared. (4) Home contamination of milk is avoided. These 

 four advantages are, in my judgment, of great value. Disadvantages. (1) The object 

 being the saving of life and the prevention of infant disease, it is necessary that such 

 a system should be individualised and placed under direct medical supervision. 

 Indiscriminate use of such milk is undesirable, and the hand-feeding of infants 

 requires so much intelligent care that it should not be generally recommended. 

 (2) There must inevitably result from any success of this system a tendency or risk 

 for mothers to feed their infants on such milk, instead of nursing them in the natural 

 way. Therefore, such milk should only be provided for those infants which for some 

 adequate reason cannot be nurtured on human milk. Such infants are the exception 

 and not the rule, and it is undesirable to adopt any method which tends to lessen 

 maternal feeding or maternal responsibility. There are cases, and these not a few, 

 where depot milk solves the problem of infant feeding, especially in large towns. But 

 anything which tends in the direction of placing the responsibility of rearing infants 

 on the municipality is to be deprecated. It is not a question of sentiment, but of 

 fact, to say that the great need of the present time in respect of this infant problem 

 is a better home life, more maternal care and feeding rather than less, and a more 



* These quantities are of course dependent on the proportions of fat, sugar, and 

 albuminoid substances originally present in the milk dealt with. 



