272 
STATE AGKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
children or place them in the nursing establishments by the 
day. No official reports on the success of this new system of 
alimentation have yet come to my knowledge; nevertheless, 
here in France the milk has been tried by Dr. Depaul, pro¬ 
fessor of medicine of Paris, on four children of the foundling 
hospital, and they all four died, two in two days, and one in 
three days, and one in four days, and all alike with bilious 
evacuations. 
I do not pretend to know whether M. Depaul’s experiments 
were faithfully made or not; M. Liebig says they were not. 
But certainly no man is more competent than Professor 
Depaul to make such an experiment, and there is no reason 
for doubting his good faith. This fatal experiment, however, 
has been sufficient to destroy the confidence of men of science 
in France in this new article of food, and it is probable that it 
will acquire no great extension in this country. 
In France the people are satisfied m this emergency with 
cow’s milk. The milk of the cow, with the addition of one- 
fifth of water and a little sugar, is not only a nearer approxi¬ 
mation to human milk, it is the nearest approximation of all. 
Why then fly to a doubtful chemical combination, when we 
have at hand so natural and safe an aliment as diluted and 
sweetened cow’s milk ? 
Liebig’s much vaunted artificial milk must therefore take 
rank after human milk and after properly diluted animal milk. 
But like the same professor’s concentrated beef, which is 
highly useful where the natural beef is not to be obtained, so, 
too, this chemical milk may be useful in the absence of the 
natural human or animal milk. 
We do not, however,' hesitate to give it rank before the 
numerous class of farinaceous preparations, which are increas¬ 
ing every day. The chemical composition of wheat flour is 
such, in fact, that it is not difficult to understand its injurious 
effects on infantile life. It possesses an acid reaction, and after 
incineration leaves phosphatic acids, which do not furnish in 
the process of digestion the quantity of alkali necessary for the 
formation of blood. 
