600 
organisms without injuriously affecting its composition or quality 
and without sensibly hurting its food value. We have authority for 
the statement that milk pasteurized at 60° C. for twenty minutes is 
“ live ” milk, rich in zymogens, and that such milk retains entirely 
the taste of fresh milk and is quite as digestible. 
THE BACTERIA AND TOXINS CONCERNED. 
Despite the great amount of work done upon this subject, there is a 
diversity of opinion as to which particular varieties of bacteria 
and their varied products are responsible for the large group of dis- 
eases comprised under the term “ gastro-intestinal infections.” There 
can be no doubt that there is a direct relation between the bacteria 
and their products in milk and the bowel complaints of children. 
It is also clear that these are not all acute specific diseases due 
to one cause. The factors are complex. It is not only the bacteria 
and their poisons in the milk, but also the bacteria always con- 
tained in the gastro-intestinal canal, that play an important part. 
While it is undoubtedly true that milk sows the seed and often actu- 
ally contains the poison, it is also well known that a deranged diges- 
tion, which favors abnormal fermentation and putrefaction of the 
milk within the body, resulting in the class of affections known as 
“ auto-infections ” and “ auto-intoxications,” here playS a definite 
role. All clinicians agree that the first essential for the successful 
treatment of the gastro-intestinal diseases of children is to at once 
discontinue the use of milk. The great prevalence of this class of 
diseases in the heated months of summer makes it perfectly plain that 
the depressing influences of heat seriously affect the resistance of 
the infant. At the same time the heat favors the growth and mul- 
tiplication of the bacteria in the milk. 
Children vary much in their susceptibility to the bacteria and the 
bacterial products concerned. The same milk may act as a violent 
poison to one child while another living under the same conditions 
may escape. 
Flugge a laid particular stress upon the peptonizing bacteria which 
for the most part are spore-bearing organisms. The spores survive 
the heat of pasteurization and have a free field for growth and 
activity. As a rule the organisms known as the lactic acid group 
gain the ascendency in raw milk, and these bacteria have a restraining 
effect upon the great majority of other species. Flugge found 3 of 
the 12 peptonizing bacteria isolated by him from heated milk to have 
poisonous properties. Pure cultures hi milk, when injected into lab- 
a Flugge, C. : Die Aufgaben und Leistungen der Milch-Sterilisirung gegeniiber 
den Darmkrankbeiten der Saulinge. Zeit. f. Hyg., vol. 17, 1894, p. 272. 
