PASTEURIZATION. 
By Milton J. Rosenau, 
Surgeon and Director Hygienic Laboratory, Public Health and Marine-Hospital 
Service, Washington, D. G. 
Pasteurization as applied to milk consists in heating it for a short 
period of time at a temperature below the boiling point, followed by 
rapid chilling. As we now understand it, the object is not so much 
to preserve the milk as it is to destroy the harmful bacteria and their 
products. 
Pasteur in 1860-1864 studied the “ diseases ” of wine, and found 
that it was sufficient to heat wine for a few moments at a temperature 
of from 50° to 60° C. in order to prevent souring and abnormal fer- 
mentation. In 1868 the successful experiment was made of sending a 
cargo of heated wine around the world upon the frigate La Sybils. 
Following the Franco-Prussian war, Pasteur studied the “dis- 
eases ” of beer, and found that beer could be preserved by being sub- 
jected to a temperature of from 50° to 55° C. The application of this 
process gave rise to the new term “ Pasteurization,” which soon be- 
came current in technical language. 
It was not until 1886 that the distinguished chemist Soxhlet ad- 
vised the heating of milk for infant feeding and described an appa- 
ratus for carrying out the process in the home. To Soxhlet will ever 
remain the merit of having systematized and popularized the heating 
of milk for the special use of infants. 
In addition to heating the milk, Soxhlet divided the day’s quantity 
conveniently into nursing bottles, which he had caused to be so shaped 
and arranged as to be readily cleansed and sterilized, upon the im- 
portance of all of which he properly laid stress. 
Soxhlet made the mistake of regarding milk, heated for a brief 
period at about the temperature of boiling water, as sterilized. He 
also placed undue stress upon a special stopper that hermetically and 
automatically sealed the flasks in cooling. 
In America, the Archives of Pediatrics contains no reference to 
the sterilization of milk until 1888. In 1889 Jacobi, 0 who had long 
practiced and taught the wisdom of boiling milk for infant feeding, 
makes reference to the use of Soxhlet’s apparatus. 
c Arch. Pediat., N. Y., 1889, 1517, 
(639) 
