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INFANTS' MILK-FOODS 



IN POWDER. 



History : For the last ten or twelve years a food for infants, 

 called milk-food, has been in the market. This was first prepared 

 by a German, H. Nestle, in Yqyqj, Switzerland, and consists of 

 prepared wheat flour and condensed milk. At the present time 

 quite a number of milk-food factories are in existence, mainly in 

 Switzerland, Germany and England, each of which works by 

 a method of its own. The United States possesses but one estab- 

 lishment, and this only since 1881, under the management of the 

 author. 



Definition: All milk-foods are combinations of milk with 

 specially prepared cereals and other flours. Other preparations, as 

 maizena, flours of arrowroot, leguminosae, barley, rye and oats, 

 should be sold as such to prevent the formation of the erroneous 

 impression that they contain milk, and are intended as food for in- 

 fants. 



The following substances constitute the milk-foods of commerce : 



1. "Water and volatile (aromatic) substances. 



2. Salts, especially alkalies and earths. 



3. Milk fat and vegetable fat. 



4. Milk albuminates and vegetable albuminates. 



5. Soluble carbohydrates: milk and cane sugar, glucose, dex- 

 trine and soluble starch. 



6. Insoluble carbohydrates and starch. 



7. Cellulose in very small quantity. 

 The properties of milk-food are : 

 Odor normal : Agreeable, pastry-like. 



Abnormal only when spoiled by age or exposure ; it is then 

 sour or mouldy. It may be decidedly rancid (tallow-like) from ex- 

 posure or the use of moist flour in the manufacture. A slightly 

 rancid odor disappears easily on boiling, and does in no way 

 impair the use of the food. This odor is produced by the presence 



