Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-07-10
THE Handled BABY.
A PECULIARLY UNFORTUNATE BEING
INTHe SUMNER TIME.

Hot Weather Troubles for the CITY In
fant-Contamination of Cows MIX.
Germs and Taints-Dangers Almost as
Greatly to BE Feared.
The hand fed baby is peculiarly unfOr
tunate in the summer time. The COW )
milk, upon which it has To rely for the
greater part % its nnUri>hmcnt, may be
derived from a swill fed. city COW, that
has no Opportunity to breathe the pure
air of the country or to secure natural
food. Such milk is, at best, poorly cal
culated To furnish food for IA delicate
child. II the animal has tuberculosis or
other wasting disease her milk i simply
poisonous If the material supplied by
the generous milk can has been brought
from the green fields of the farms thirty
to fifty miles away, it has had To run the
gauntlet of a thousand dangers before the
city child has chance to make Use of il
to sustain its feeble life. The milkmaid
may have been too lazy or careless to
properly cleanse the receptacle which first
receives it. the can that brings il to the
depot is, rs likely a. not. in the same con
dition as regards cleanliness; ON the train
1t may not be kept properly cooled; at the
milk depot dishonest servants may all
stract the cream or increase its bulk with
water from the nearest well or other
source of impurity; while the milkman
himself may tamper with il on his rounds
in order To increase his own revenue.
But the dangers to which the milk has
been exposed before it reaches the family
are often small compared with those il en-
counters in the home-of rich and poor
alike. No matter what precautions have
been taken by farmer, transportation com
pany and dealers, every particle of city
milk has become contaminated with the
germs Of decomposition before it can he
delivered to the consumer. They may he
hindered from developing by one of two
methods-by boiling or by keeping the
milk cold. The former is the only safe
one. but il partially unfits it for food.
Boiling is effective only for IA short time
so long as the surrounding air, laden with
new germs of the same kind. has free ac-
cess to it, Keeping it cold with ice is be
yond the financial ability Of many: be-
sides, the ice used for this purpose may
have been cut from the surface of n stag
nant pond and he full of germs Of dccom-
position or of disease. The feeding bottle
is in vast number Of instances the un-
suspected cause of death. Unless the ut
most care is taken with such bottles they
are sure to have portions of dccumpOsng
milk clinging to them, which speedily set
up changes of the same sort when filed
with fresh supply.
DANGERS ALMOST AS GREAT.
Children who have Outgrown the feed
DO hot Ia ..yt.n.aI =, a.,
as great in the shape of hot bread. indi-
gestible cakes, pies, meats and stale vege-
tables. Food of the best quality, origi-
nally, is often spoiled by an ignorant cook
and rendered practically poisonous, eS-
pecially for young children. Many fatal
case of summer complaint" has been
traced to green apples, spoiled peaches,
raw cuCumbers, rotten tomatoes, or some
form Of pork or veal, such aS the elder
members of the family have eaten with
impunity, if not enjoyment The heated
term, especially if the sleeping quarters
are confined and not ventilated.
forces the skin to do an unusual
amount Of work. The effect of eX-
cessive sweating, if frequent baths
are not taken, is to set up irritation of the
surface that results in an eruption, the so
neat. JTElldN4bil Oi the
skin interferes with sleep and increases
the general loss of strength besides, by
what the common man" calls ''sympa-
thy" the scientific people call it reflex
action" which is equally lucid, the mu-
cuous membrane which lines the entire
digestive apparatus becomes irritated
also. This is a common enough cause of
summer complaint -
1t is easily to be seen, therefore, that
the great underlying cause of all these
troubles, for they are at bottom one, is
the excessive heat of our summers. The
bad hygiene depends upon this for its fatal
consequences The European writers are
mostly OF the opinion that cholera infan-
tum, which is the most rapidly fatal Of
these affections, is an AmeriCanism.
They may be right to a certain extent, fol
our own conditions of climate are un.
known among the countries Of northern
and central EurOpe.-Cor. st. Louis
Globe Democrat.