Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-19
BOIL THE IMPURE MILK.
A Few Suggestions to Mothers on How
to Keep Their Babies Well.

Mothers in the populous tenement districts
Of a great town may do much toward keep
ing their babies well this summer if they fol-
low the advice Of DR.. Charles G. Currier, pub
lished in recent issues Of the Medical Record
and Medical Journal DR.. Currier says that
milk containing, as II does, the elements of
a complete nutrition, affords q favorable me-
dunn for the multiplication Of numerous kinds
Of bacteria. Scarlet fever and other diseases
of which the causes are not yet precisely
known have been conclusively shown to be
spread by contaminated milk" The doctor
says that the average milk sold in this city
contains many thousands of bacteria in each
teaspoonful, and that in the same quantity of
the worst milk there are q million. The only
sure way to kill these disease-producing bac-
teria the doctor says, is to boil the life out of
them. "Cold," the doctor admits, ''retards
greatly the increase of such organisms az may
have found their way into milk, but the germs
OF disease can for q long time retain their
vitality in milk, even If 1t be kept as cold a.
ice."
Boiling or steaming milk sterilizes it. In
order to find out how much steaming or boil
ing the average city milk required to COM
pletely steriliZe it the doctor spent fifteen
months experimenting in laboratories here and
in Berlin.
ut is uncommonly good city mill" the doc
tor remarks, which becomes completely
steriized in from half an hour to three-quar-
sers of an hour. IL impure milk after being
steamed for from half an hour to an hour 10
not wholly sterilzed, and few spores remain
alive in il, it will be much more wholesome
than before the steaming process, and one can
feel confident that as far as the science Of the
day reveals no living organisms of disease are
present. Such milk will, in a cool place, keep
for days; but if it is desired to keep it indef-
nitely, that purpose can be insured in advance
and accomplished with certainty only by
steaming it for hours unless the milk 10 OF an
usual purity, most carefully obtained at the
dairy and put in the cleanest Of containers"
To the multitude of folks who have to use for
feeding their infants milk of Questionable
purity the doctor recommends this simple
method Of sterilization: Pour the milk into q
bottle of any size, plugged with clean, ordi-
nary cotton, and keep it in a steamer or in hot
water for at least an hour and then keep cool
until used The doctor adds: 1.-The danger
that bacteria will fall in from the air when the
milk is poured from the large bottle into the
nursing bottle IL a minor one. 1t is when they
swarm in the milk that the bacteria are most
to be apprehended, and not when they are soil
tary. Careful instructions should be given TO
keep the bottles clean. For soaking the rubber
nipple use . three or four per cent solution of
boric acid" The doctor says babies thrive on
sterilized milk and grow perfectly.
DIR. Currier strongly advocates the use Of
boiled or sterilized water as a means Of pre-
venting disease. He says large number of
laboratory experiments convince him that
much typhoid, cholera and less severe diar-
rhHal attacks are due to the use of infected
waters. He writes: Those who are doubtful
~ to whether boiling does not deprive water of
the elements necessary toperfect nutrition may
be assured that such cooked water ID emnently
wholesome. Among our ansipodes, 40 well "a
in many, many model families of our own race,
the practice OF boiling water is prevalent and,
seem distinctly ssiutary rather than
otherwise. The absence Of agreeable taste
produced by oxyGenation seems the chief OBJ
lection. This can be in part remedisd by the
Introduction Of small proportion Of teas OF
agreeable salts: or air can Gin . primitive
fashion) be introduced by q bellows in the
absence Of moro elaborate apparatua" The
doctor declares that ordinary water becomes
sterii1ed after being kept at or near the boiling
point for fifteen minutes A clear water CON
tanning the germs Of maiarial disorders typhoid,
cholera or diphtheria may be made driakable
il merely brought 10 the boiling point. A con-
taminated water should be heated for enc hour
aad allowed 70 cool slowly.