VIII, B, 6 Musgrave: Infant Mortality 465 



the actual milk contained in these tins is figured at the current 

 prices, and this price subtracted from the total price of a tin 

 of one of these mixtures, it is found that the people pay an 

 average of from 50 to 75 centavos a kilogram for ordinary sugar, 

 which they can buy in a tienda ' for 11 centavos a kilogram. 



It is, of course, unnecessary to dwell upon the undesirability 

 of the use of this class of foods, and it only remains to point 

 out that it is bad in principle, and what apparently, heretofore, 

 has not been recognized that it is a more expensive method of 

 feeding than would be necessary by the employment of good 

 qualities of milk. 



It should be stated that there is one favorable feature in the 

 use of sugar-preserved milk compounds, and that is that the 

 excessive amount of sugar preserves the food from the time of 

 the opening of the tin until the food is entirely consumed. This 

 is, of course, an important problem with poor people who can- 

 not afford 'the ice necessary for the preservation of any pure 

 milk, whether sterilized or not, after the tin is opened. How- 

 ever, this should not be a serious obstacle in the adoption of the 

 use of a better grade of milk, because the method that is used to 

 a greater or less extent among the poorer people of the United 

 States, in which a number of neighbors who have nursing chil- 

 dren alternate in the opening of the tins of food, so that each 

 tin when opened is consumed by a number of babies in a few 

 hours, might well be adopted here. Another solution of this 

 problem that already is being employed by some manufacturers 

 consists in marketing milk in much smaller tins. 



The next most important faulty custom consists in the dilu- 

 tion of milk compounds with unsafe water. In our investiga- 

 tion of the causes of death of 300 babies, it is found that tap 

 water, either with or without boiling, is used as a diluent in 

 most instances. As a majority of the houses of these people 

 are at considerable distances from the nearest faucet, the water 

 is carted by water carriers and kept in earthenware jars or 

 other vessels, under the most unsanitary conditions; in many 

 instances whatever safety might be secured by boiling the water 

 is destroyed by the subsequent manipulations and care of the 

 water and by the methods employed in making the dilutions of 

 the milk mixtures. The proof that these mixtures are dangerous 

 to the health of the baby, on account of the introduction of 

 bacteria, is shown by the analyses of the contents of a number 

 of nursing bottles already prepared for consumption by the 



* Small, native shop. 



