659 
duction of scurvy. But in view of the fact that scurvy is either rare 
or not recognized in France we must examine these figures critically. 
Some of this evidence follows : 
Variot a in a recent communication sums up his experience with the 
use of heated milk for infant feeding as follows : 
At the dispensary of La Goutte de Lait de Belleville, which I have directed 
since 1892, we have distributed for twelve years in the poorest quarters of 
Paris about 400,000 bottles of sterilized milk to more than 3,000 infants of the 
working class deprived of their mother’s milk. With my collaborateurs, MM. 
Drs. Dufestel, Lazard, and Roger, we have made a study of the artificial feed- 
ing with sterilized milk and the results of our experiments are so decisive, each 
case controlled by weight, and an examination of the organs and functions, that 
we think our results merit publication. 
The milk received from farmers in the country is heated to 108° C. before 
transportation in the bottles of half a liter, stoppered with cork and the medical 
seal. This milk keeps several days without alteration, even during the greatest 
heat of summer. It is delivered daily at the Belleville dispensary to 100-150 
infants. Every week or oftener if necessary the infants are weighed and 
inspected with care, records of which are kept. The following are some of the 
conclusions of the results of twelve years’ experience: 
1. The milk sterilized at 108° C. preserves all of its nutritive value. It is 
not inferior to milk pasteurized at 80° C. or with heating at 100° C. in the appa- 
ratus of Soxhlet. 
2. The destruction by the heating of the enzymes, the slight alteration of the 
lactose, the doubtful precipitation of the citrate of calcium, or the alteration 
of the lecithins does not affect its assimilability in an appreciable manner. Not 
one case of infantile scurvy has been observed by the dispensary. 
3. Thanks to this sterilized milk we have been able to raise not only healthy 
infants, but also atrophic infants, retarded in their development as a result of 
gastro-intestinal troubles. 
4. Rachitis did not develop in any of the infants. 
5. In 3,000 infants of the poorest class about 3 or 4 per cent showed them- 
selves incapable of using sterilized milk. 
6. Constipation and anemia were not rare among the infants raised by this 
method. On the other hand the summer diarrheas were markedly attenuated 
in severity. 
Berlioz * * * & reports favorable results from the use of sterilized milk. 
He believes that with such milk we are capable of enormously re- 
ducing infant mortalit}L From 1894 to 1897 he distributed sterilized 
milk to the poor of Grenoble during the months of July, August, and 
September. It was sterilized in an autoclave at 110° C. for half an 
hour in bottles containing 200-250 cubic centimeters. 
a Variot, M. G. : Valeur nutritive du lait de vache sterilise a 108° pour 
l’allaitement artificiel. Comp. rend, des seances de l’Acad. d. Sci., vol. 139, 
1904, p. 1002. 
6 Budin, M. P. : Sur le lait sterilise. Bull, de l’Acad. de m£d., 3 me ser., vol. 
37, 1897, p. 685. 
