May 1, 1925 
Feeding Chlorinated Milk to the Albino Rat 
891 
for 30 minutes will still give the 
reaction. 
Hale and Bleecker 6 state that active 
chlorine does act as a germicide in 
milk and in ice cream with a reduction 
in the number of bacteria proportional 
in general to the amount of active 
chlorine present, but they are not will¬ 
ing to recommend chlorine 
for treating market milk on 
the basis of their experi¬ 
mental results covering its 
germicidal value. The ex¬ 
periments presented in their 
paper were conducted simul¬ 
taneously with those pre¬ 
sented in this paper, and the 
concentration of chlorine in 
the milks used by Hale and 
Bleecker were controlled by 
the standard arsenious acid 
solution prepared especially 
for obtaining the data given 
in this paper. The results 
presented in these two papers 
are, therefore, entirely com¬ 
parable from the standpoint 
of the concentration of active 
chlorine in the treated milk. 
The experimental rats 
came from a standardized 
stock. Less than one-third 
of the animals placed on ex¬ 
periment have been reported 
in this paper, inasmuch as 
those on the higher concentrations of 
chlorine fared equally as well as did 
those on the weaker concentrations and 
also the controls. The calcium and 
sodium hypochlorites imparted consid¬ 
erable flavor in the 1:3,000 and 1:5,000 
concentrations, but this did not pre¬ 
vent the animals from consuming liberal 
quantities of the treated milk; and it 
will be observed from the table and 
Figures 1, 2, and 3 that the growth and 
reproduction records of these animals 
are as satisfactory in every respect as 
are those of the control animals. 
SUMMARY 
The experiments reported in this 
paper indicate that the feeding of milk 
treated with active chlorine in the con¬ 
centrations studied produces no harm¬ 
ful effects upon the white rat as far as 
has been observed from investigations 
of this nature extending over a period 
of 10 months. On the other hand, 
this statement is not a recommenda¬ 
tion for the treatment of milk with ac¬ 
tive chlorine. 
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200 
260 
220 
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Fig. 3—The curves in this figure show the growth of male rats 
receiving 1 part of active chlorine (in the form of chlorine water) 
in 3,000 and 5,000 parts of whole fresh milk. The rest of the diet 
consisted of an intimate mixture of equal parts of whole wheat 
and whole corn, both finely ground, plus L per cent each of 
sodium chloride and calcium carbonate. The dotted curve repre- 
sents the growth of the control animals receiving the untreated 
milk 
6 Hale, H., and Bleecker, W. L. active chlorine as a germicide for milk and milk products. 
Jour. Agr. Research (1923) 26: 375-382, illus. 1924. 
