The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-09-16
Death In the Nursing Bottle.

In city like ours, where the death rate
at the present season averages 700 to 800
per week, mostly children, every humane
person feels the necessity of increased
vigilance to combat every evil which tends
to increase "the slaughter of the inno-
cents" High temperature is one Of the
causes which we are powerless to combat.
Dirty streets and filthy houses we must
leave to the Board of Health. Poverty of
the parents, which prevents their provid-
ing suitable food and medicine for their
little ones, is another cause of our great
infantile mortality, against which we can
and ought to do something. Butignorance
is another cause, too often overlooked,
against which we are not powerless if we
organize for action. The daily papers
warn old and young against the dangers
of unripe fruit and stale watermelons; but
people will indulge, and we must allow
the American citizen, however young, to
exercise his inalienable right to take his
own life in this way.
But there is another prolific source of
infant mortality to which we wish now to
direct special attention, namely: the patent
nursing bottle. 1t consists of a rubber
tube, one end of which is held in the
child's mouth; the other end, passing
through a cork, is attached to glass rod
which descends to the bottom of bottle
of so-called milk. We might write col
umn on the dangers that reside in the
milk, unless special care has been taken
to obtain it fresh or by suitably diluting
pure condensed milk. But this danger is
we'll known, and our business at present
is with the bottle, or rather its dirty tube,
which should never be used more than
once, then thrown away and new one
bought.
Even when new, these white tubes, i'm
pregnated as they are with oxide of zinc,
are not unobjectionable; far worse are
they when saturated with sour milk, germs
of putrefaction, decay and disease. Some
of these child-murdering Yankee inven-
tions have reached Berlin, and have called
forth the following from practicing ply
stefan of that city;
The supposed advantage OF these bot
ties consists in this, that they can be
placed beside the infant in bed, while
other bottles must he held in the hand all
tie time. What sensible mother or nurse
would have child with bottle without
watching it? The danger of the bottle
consists in this, that it is absolutely i'm
possible to cleanse it. When sucked on,
llIllG DaTClCleS VI Wlkh UcEOAlC dtedSuCO w
the tube and cork these curdle and soon
turn sour. IT. some of this deposit be
placed under microscope we see innumer-
able bacteria, organic beings which indi-
cate decomposition and decay. At every
meal the child draws in thousands of these
germs. The decomposition process acts
upon what it finds in the mouth, Gsopha-
gus and stomach; and the result is diar-
rhea, cholera tnyantssns, etc. will
here expressly remark that the usual
method ofplacing the apparatus in water, or
merely rinsing it out with stream Of
water, is in no way sufficient. Some deal
ers sell suitable little wire brush with
the bottle, but even this does not answer
the purpose, for the apparatus is not clean
by long way after drawing the brush
through it several times; and who will
take the trouble to clean it 50 thoroughly
eight or ten times day? How much
time it would required Another disad-
vantage is that the bottle Is alright, and
partial vacuum is formed, which rem
ders sucking SO difficult as to exhaust the
child, and i stops before its hunger il
satisfied. Hence, parents, ye, who are
compelled to feed your children with
bottle, throw away this apparatus, which
can only bring destruction upon your
children, and either select T. bottle with
glass mouthpiece, which 10 flied from be
low, or take : large rubber nouthpiece,
which il perforated by . small hole and