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THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST OF AUSTRALASIA. 
June 1 , 1887 . 
DI/cRRHCE/tL DISEASES. 
THEIR PREVENTION AND CURE. 
INFANT MORTALITY. 
“ It may be asked whether the practical results of peptonising the 
casein of cows’ milk are as beneficial in early infancy as the theory 
would indicate. As far as tried the question can be answered in the 
affirmative.” — New York Medical Eecord. 
After referring to zymine and the pancreatic method of pre-digestion, 
the British Medical Journal says: — “Its introduction has probably 
done more than any other measure of recent times to lessen infant 
mortality.” 
There is nothing physicians who have many children under 
their care dread more than the summer months. A great deal 
has been written about the dangers of the “second summer,” 
but, of course, the second summer differs not from any other 
summer. It is well known that at certain periods of life 
certain diseases are most apt to appear, Diarrhcea is the 
scourge of infant life, and milk peptonised with Fairchild’s 
Peptonising Powders is the best preventive. 
Startling Statistics. 
The disease of all diseases to carry off young infants is 
summer diarrhoea. In a prominent treatise on diseases of 
children, a record is given of the monthly deaths from diarrhcea 
and dysentery in Philadelphia during a period of seven years, 
and this record shows that just about two-thirds of the mor- 
tality of each year was in the months of July and August. In 
London and New York from 1-lOth to l-8th of all the deaths 
of the entire population is from diarrhoeal diseases in children 
under five years of. age; “in one town in New England the 
mortality reached nearly 15 per cent., and in one Southern 
city nearly 18 per cent.” (Yale). 
Of over 2000 cases of diarrhcea that came under the notice 
of Dr. West at the Children’s infirmary, “ exactly half occurred 
in children between the ages of six months and two years,” 
and during eight years in the same institution, from May to 
October, inclusive, of each year, diarrhcea formed 38.3 per- 
cent. of all diseases. Of 14,773 deaths among children in New 
York, 13,000 were from diarrhcea in those under five years of 
age. 
“ In one of the three foundling hos^iitals of Prance, that at 
Blxeims, the stay of the infant does not exceed a few days ; 
hut neither while there, nor afterwards, while at nurse in the 
country, is it brought up at the breast. The mortality under 
one year of the children admitted reached 63.9 per cent. 
(authority of M. Villerme). At X , where none of the 
children are suckled, but all are fed, of 22j new-born infants, 
197 (or 80 per cent.) had died by the end of the first year 
(West). 
Artificial Feeding. 
“ Before the Foundling Asylum was established, the foundl- 
ings of New York, more than a thousand annually, were placed 
in the almshouse on Blackwell’s Island, in charge of the- 
pauper women. . , . To each of these women one or two 
foundlings were assigned, and they were expected to feed them 
with the milk and coarse bread, of the almshouse made into 
pap. These waifs all died within three months.” The writer 
of these words, Dr. Louis Smith, says that in one institution, 
“ a ward is set aside for such infants as are from necessity de- 
prived of breast milk, and it goes by the name of the ward of 
the dying habiesy 
Dr. Thorpe, of Liverpool, states that of 634 deaths from in- 
fantile diarrhcea, only 23 were fed on mother’s milk. 
A Sure Preventive. 
With a due appreciation of all these facts, and after the 
most crucial tests by the greatest living authorities on Diseases 
of children, we have introduced a preparation (Zymine — Ex- 
tractum Pancreatis, Fairchild), of which Dr. Geo. Harley, 
years ago affirmed, that if ever such a one were produced it- 
would be the greatest boon ever conferred upon suffering 
humanity. At the Philadelphia Sanitary convention a couple 
of weeks ago, in an able article on “Artificial Feeding,” Dr. 
Keating maintained that cows’ milk, properly prepared, is the 
next best thing to mothers’ milk. The Council at Salsburg 
asserted the same. 
Let the following from a leader in the New York Medical 
Kecord on “ improvement in infant diet ” be carefully read : — 
“We have seen that cows’ milk is the best substitute for 
human milk, but that the former is apt to disagree with the 
infant. . . . Let ordinary pure cows’ milk be diluted with 
water that has previously been boiled to destroy all germs, 
until its percentage of albuminoids has been reduced to the 
proper amount. Next add to it enough cream to make up the 
fat, and some sugar of milk. Then pepionise it with reliable 
extract of the pancreas [Zymine] for the alteration of casein, 
and there is produced the best physiological imitation of 
mothers’ milk.” 
Milk peptonised with Fairchild Peptonising Powders is used 
in the largest hospitals in the world, and has been the means 
of saving untold numbers of infant lives. It is not only the 
food for infants, but for invalids and the aged as well. It is 
retained in the stomach when all else is rejected, and is sooth- 
ing and grateful when every other food causes distress and pain 
BURROUGHS, WELLCOME & GO., Snow Hill Buildings, London, E.C. 
MELBOURNE: 55 CHANCERY LANE. 
