MILK AND CHILD MORTALITY 159 



the cowshed, it is not possible to exonerate faecal contamina- 

 tion at the farm or in transit from blame. It cannot but 

 be prejudicial to the infant intestine and vital powers to have 

 to deal with milk laden with living intestinal bacteria and 

 toxic products. Their activity may and probably does weaken 

 the resistance of the body against specific infection with the 

 organism of epidemic diarrhoea when that infection takes 

 place. Indeed, there is some evidence that this actually results. 



Peters,^ in a prolonged investigation upon diarrhoea in 

 Mansfield, found no special incidence upon the milk of any one 

 milkman. He found that the rise of diarrhoea incidence to a 

 maximum in the second year with subsequent gradual decline, 

 corresponded exactly with the frequency with which cows' milk 

 appeared in the dietary of children throughout the first few 

 years of life. On the other hand, milk as the cause of 

 diarrhoea could be definitely ruled out for many of the older 

 children. 



The possibly prejudicial effect of cows' milk in a general 

 way and apart from containing the specific organism of 

 infantile diarrhoea is also suggested by the investigations of 

 Scholberg and Wallis.^ These observers studied the chemical 

 and physical changes in milk produced as the result of 

 bacterial contamination. They found that during the summer 

 months, and more especially when the temperature of the air 

 was rising, peptones appeared even in comparatively fresh 

 samples of milk as supplied to the consumer. The quantity 

 of albumoses and peptones present bore a definite relation to 

 the time the sample was kept, and also to the temperature 

 to which the milk was exposed. They furnish evidence that 

 the peptone-like body and the peptones found in milk are 

 toxic to infants, and the authors concluded that milk contain- 

 ing these bodies was unfit for infant feeding. Their bacterio- 

 logical results pointed to an intimate relationship between 

 the quantitative and qualitative bacterial content and the 

 appearance of peptone-like bodies in milk. 



Park and Holt ^ carried out an extended series of observa- 

 tions extending over two years upon the results of feeding 



' Journ. of Hygiene, 1910, x. 602. 



^ Report of Medical Officxv, Local Government Board, 1909-10, p. 504. 



3 Archives of Pediatrics, 1903, p. 881. 



