It is easy to see, then, how a milk modification in which the min- 
eral salts are greatly reduced, or even a rich whole milk, which by 
virtue of its sterilization is thereby made easier of digestion, may, on 
the one hand either by deficient supplying of alkaline bases, and on 
the other by their excessive abstraction from the body for the pur- 
poses of saponification, produce in the long run the alteration of the 
body tissues and fluids which may result in scurvy. It may, how- 
ever, be objected that the proprietary foods and condensed milk, 
which are anything but rich in fat, are themselves the most prolific 
causes of infantile scurvy. 
This objection may be met by the fact that these are concentrated 
foods, and, for use, are diluted with large volumes of water. In the 
case of condensed milk, at least, this has the effect of reducing the 
salts far below the limit required by the body. Thus, condensed 
milk, when diluted with 6 parts of water, contains 0.17 per cent, with 
12 parts 0.10 per cent, and with 18 parts 0.07 per cent of these salts. 
These are the dilutions ordinarily used in the feeding of infants. 
Taking woman’s milk as a standard of infant needs in this respect 
in maternal nursing, at least, we find, according to Yon Bunge, that 
potassium and sodium are by far the preponderating alkaline bases 
in its salts, and that the child requires of them 0.07 and 0.025 per 
cent, respectively, in its food. 
This, however, may be said to be true only when lactation is well 
established. During the first weeks of lactation the percentage of 
mineral salts present is higher than this, which may have the effect 
of increasing the reserve supply. As these salts are present in whole 
cow’s milk in the proportions of 0.17 and 0.05 per cent, it will be 
seen that the dilution of condensed milk as given above reduces 
them to infinitesimal amounts, in the case of the first dilution 0.00309 
and 0.00085 of each. Nor does it necessarily follow that an amount 
of these salts similar to that furnished with human milk will be 
adequate when supplied in conjunction with other foods, as much 
depends upon the conditions' governing absorption. In the case of 
the proprietary foods, scurvy has been met with in those cases where 
they have been used as a complete substitute for milk. In some of 
these foods, such as Nestle’s, Eskay’s, Ridge’s food, and Imperial 
Granum, the amount of inorganic salts present, differing but little 
or being much less than those in condensed milk when diluted to the 
extent required for use, predicates a similar condition on their part. 
When we come to consider artificial foods in general I think we are 
justified in assuming that they should contain an amount of inorganic 
salts at. least equal to that of the food, i. e., cow’s milk, which has 
been the most successful in the artificial feeding of infants. When 
we reduce cow’s milk to the basis of the relative proportion of its 
