The Mortality of Infants. 97 



of wine, water or beer we consume passes to the 

 colon, which is the true organ of resorption. When 

 we compare the immense quantities of fluids some 

 people are able to absorb, with the limited capacity 

 of the stomach, we may conjecture that these liquids 

 do not remain in the stomach for a very long time, 

 and that they cannot be subjected to digestion in the 

 stomach. This is the explanation why, in serious 

 derangement of the functions of the stomach, liquid 

 nourishment alone is supported. When speaking of 

 liquid nourishment we are apt to think of broth and 

 milk. 



Now, it is known that beef-broth is rather an in- 

 centive a stimulant than a nourishment, and that we 

 should never succeed in keeping a person alive on 

 broth alone, while milk contains every ingredient ne- 

 cessary to the building up and sustenance of the or- 

 ganism. Is milk, however, a liquid nourishment ? 

 It is so only as long as it is outside of the stomach. 

 On arrival in the stomach it is curdled, transformed 

 into a lump by the acid and the rennet present, and 

 this lump must be dissolved again by the gastric 

 juice. Bearing this in mind, we must call cow's milk 

 a solid food, and not a liquid one. Physicians find 

 this corroborated in their daily practice. Here is the 

 all important difference between woman's milk and 

 cow's milk, for woman's milk remains liquid, or, what 

 is the same, curdles in so minutely fine flakes in the 

 stomach that it is able to pass on from it without pre- 

 vious digestion. 



