XX PRESERVATION OF MILK 377 



tion, that there is no satisfactory evidence to show that cooked 

 milk is either less easily digested or less easily absorbed from 

 the intestine than raw milk. The loss of nutritive value by 

 heating is also negligible. 



In addition to nutritive and digestive alterations it has 

 frequently been contended that boiling or otherwise cooking 

 milk deprives it of its antiscorbutic ]properties, and that such 

 milk is a cause of infantile scurvy, rickets, and other conditions 

 of mal-nutrition. 



It is difficult to find definite evidence in favour of such an 

 assumption, and the case seems to mainly rest upon rather 

 vague assertions based upon clinical experience which is not 

 submitted in any concrete form. On the other hand, the 

 opponents of any such connection are able to point to an 

 immense number of children systematically fed on sterilised 

 milk without any prejudicial effect being detectable. For 

 instance, at the dispensary of La Goutte de Lait de Belleville 

 a very large number of infants have systematically been fed 

 upon sterilised milk under Variot, and he is entirely in favour 

 of the view that the nutritive and assimilative properties are 

 not appreciably affected, while no cases of rickets or infantile 

 scurvy have been observed. 



Since boiled milk is deprived of its ferments it may be 

 prejudicial if used as the sole form of food for infants, but this 

 has yet to be proved, and at the most is only likely to be true 

 of sterilised milk kept for some time. In the absence of 

 proof to the contrary it would seem that there is no detrimental 

 effect likely to be manifested in infants fed on cooked milk 

 either as regards diminution of nutrition or the development 

 of disease, while the safety conferred by such a procedure from 

 the elimination of possibly dangerous bacteria is very great. 



III. Pasteurisation 



There has been a good deal of discussion as to the efficacy 

 of pasteurisation, much of which has arisen from the lack of 

 definition as to what is meant by the term, processes differing 

 considerably in- their practical results all being included as 

 pasteurisation processes. 



Pasteurisation dates from some experiments of Pasteur 



