160 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
still not replace woman^s milk, because wheaten flour bas an 
acid reaction, and contains less alkali than milk. This alkali 
we must presuppose is requisite in the body for the normal 
functions of the child. And even although starch be not 
unfitting for the nourishment of the infant, the change of it 
into sugar in the stomach during digestion imposes an un- 
necessary labour on the organisation, which will be spared 
it if the starch be beforehand transformed into the soluble 
forms of sugar and dextrine. 
This is easily done by adding to the wheaten flour a certain 
quantity of malt. 
If a sort of pap be made by boiling milk and wheaten flour, 
and adding to this a given quantity of malt flour, the mixture 
will soon become fluid and acquire a sweet taste. It is on this 
transformation of starch into sugar, and by supplying the 
failing alkali in the milk, that the preparation of this new soup 
is based. 
The skimmed milk that is sold contains in itself seldom 
more than II per cent, of solid matter (4 casein, 4*5 sugar of 
milk, and 2*5 butter), in which blood-forming and heat- 
producing ingredients are present in the proportion of 1 : 2*5 ; 
hence by adding 1 part of wheaten flour and 1 part of malt 
flour to 10 parts of skimmed cow^s milk, a mixture is obtained 
which agrees with the composition of woman^s milk. 
Proportion of 
blood-forming. 
In 10 parts of cow’s milk are contained ... 0*40 
' „ 1 „ wheaten flour 0'14 
„ 1 „ malt flour 0’07 
Heat-producing 
matter. 
1*00 part. 
0-74 
0*58 
j) 
0-61 2-32 
These numbers correspond to the proportion of 1 part of 
blood-forming to 3" 8 parts of heat-producing matter. The 
analysis of malt shows that it contains 1IT2 per cent, of 
blood-forming matter, but in the soup itself only 7 per 
cent, is retained. As wheaten flour and malt flour con- 
tain less alkali than woman^s milk, this must be supplied when 
preparing the soup. I have found that the addition of 3 
grammes (45 grains, 30 drops, 2*8 cubic centimeter) of a 
solution of carbonate of potash containing 11 per cent, of this 
salt, or instead of this gr. of bicarbonate of potash, is suffi- 
cient to neutralise the acid reaction of the two sorts of flour. 
A few drops more render the mixture slightly alkaline. 
The soup is to be prepared as follows : — 
One part of wheat-flour an ounce) is put into the vessel 
used for making the soup, and 10 parts (5 ounces) of skimmed 
cow^s milk are then added gradually in small quantities, the 
