226 
BARON  LIEBIG'S  SOUP  FOR  CHILDREN. 
be  better  known,  the  principal  point — its  use  for  firearms — re- 
mains in  nearly  the  same  state  in  which  it  was  left  by  the 
French  Commission  of  1846. 
There  is  nothing  to  lead  us  to  suppose  it  possible,  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge,  to  prevent  the  spontaneous  ex- 
plosion of  pyroxylin,  or  to  get  rid  of  its  injurious  properties  
Chem.  News,  Oct.  29,  1864,  from  Com,ptes  Rendus,  lix.,  363,  64. 
BARON  LIEBIG'S  SOUP  FOR  CHILDREN. 
With  that  remarkable  estimation  of  the  greatness  of  small 
things  which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  his  many  high  intel- 
lectual qualities,  and  with  a  tender  appreciation  of  the  importance 
of  small  people,  Baron  Liebig  devotes  a  special  article  in  an 
English  scientific  periodical  to  the  description  of  a  new  article  of 
diet  which  he  conceives  to  be  the  most  fitting  substitute  for  the 
natural  nutriment  for  those  children  who  are  by  circumstances 
robbed  of  their  mother's  milk.  It  is  well  known  that  cow's  milk 
does  not  adequately  represent  the  milk  of  a  healthy  woman,  and 
when  wheaten  flour  is  added,  as  it  commonly  is,  Liebig  points  out 
that,  although  starch  be  not  unfitting  for  the  nourishment  of  the 
infant,  the  change  of  it  into  sugar  in  the  stomach  during  digestion 
imposes  an  unnecessary  labor  on  the  organization,  which  will  be 
spared  it  if  the  starch  be  beforehand  transformed  into  the  soluble 
forms  of  sugar  and  dextrine.  This  he  effects  by  adding  to  the 
wheaten  flour  a  certain  quantity  of  malt.  As  wheaten  flour  and 
malt  flour  contain  less  alkali  than  woman's  milk,  he  supplies  this 
when  preparing  the  soup.  This  "  soup  "  may  be  shortly  prepared 
as  follows  :  "Half  an  ounce  of  wheaten  flour,  and  an  equal  quan- 
tity of  malt  flour,  seven  grains  and  a  quarter  of  bicarbonate  of 
potash,  and  one  ounce  of  water,  are  to  be  well  mixed  ;  five  ounces 
of  cow's  milk  are  then  to  be  added,  and  the  whole  put  on  a  gen- 
tle fire ;  when  the  mixture  begins  to  thicken  it  is  removed  from 
the  fire,  stirred  during  five  minutes,  heated  and  stirred  again  till 
it  becomes  quite  fluid,  and  finally  made  to  boil.  After  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  bran  by  a  sieve,  it  is  ready  for  use.  By  boiling  it 
for  a  few  minutes  it  loses  all  taste  of  the  flour." 
The  immediate  inducement  for  his  making  the  soup  was  that 
