130 Condensed Milk and Milk Powder 



largely in organic combination as casein and as lecithin, is changed 

 by heat to inorganic combinations, the lecithin phosphorus by 

 saponification, and the casein phosphorus by changes in the casein 

 molecule, suggests a poorer retention of the inorganic phosphorus 

 by the animal body. Cronheim and Mueller 1 who studied this phase 

 of nutrition could detect no appreciable difference as to the assim- 

 ilation of phosphorus by feeding sterilized and raw milk, respec- 

 tively. Their results were rather in favor of sterilized milk. 



Grimmer 2 holds that digestive and intestinal disorders in infants 

 are possibly largely due to biological disturbances, modifying the 

 bacterial flora of the intestines, and to the absence of lecithin and 

 unorganized ferments in heated milk. He reports that the addition 

 to boiled milk of substances rich in lecithin, such as the yolk of egg, 

 also ferments, such as pepsin, trypsin, and emulsin produce a marked 

 improvement in such cases. 



The foregoing citations suggest that our knowledge of the 

 dietetic effect of heated or boiled milk is exceedingly limited and 

 that the results obtained and conclusions drawn by the various in- 

 vestigators are at variance. In experiments with the living organ- 

 ism, and confined to so few specimen as seems to have been the case 

 in the work reported, the factors of individuality and environment 

 are a constant stumbling block, magnifying the limit of experimental 

 error and weakening the conclusiveness of the results. On the basis 

 of our present knowledge it seems reasonable to conclude that, as 

 far as the digestibility of its inherent ingredients is concerned, con- 

 densed milk, when consumed in properly diluted form, varies but 

 little, if any, from raw milk. The absence in condensed milk of 

 ferments, such as enzymes, which are destroyed in the process and 

 which may assist digestion, may be considered the most important 

 defect of condensed milk from the dietetic point of view. 



In the case of sweetened condensed milk, however, the nutritive 

 ratio of the normal milk is decisively disturbed by the presence of 

 large quantities of sucrose. Even when diluted to far beyond the 

 composition of normal and original fluid milk, the per cent, of cane 

 sugar is still high, causing the nutritive ratio of such milk to be 

 abnormally wide and unbalanced. The carbohydrates are present 

 far in excess of the protein, fat and ash. If fed to infants exclu- 



1 Cronheim and Mueller, Jahrtmch luer Kinderheilk, 57, p. 45, 1903 



2 Grimmer, Chemie and Physiologie der Milch, 1910 



