Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-17
THE GERMS IN MILK.
A Comparatively New Discovery That
Will Save the Little Ones.
MILK FROM THE COW IS PURE,
But the Microbes Swarm in the Stshles
and Soon Get Into It.
THE AMOUNT OF HEAT NECESSARY
WRITTEN FOE THE DIsPArcH.I

WRITTEN FOE THE DISPArCH.i
One-fourth Of all the deaths in the United
States are of children under 1 year of age,
and nearly one half, in round numbers 400,-
900. are of children under ). In cities this
proportion rises during the warmer part Of
the year, until one-half of all the deaths are
of babies under II months old. The ma
jority of these children die of germ diseases,
introduced into the system in the uncooked
milk and water, which constitutes the sols
diet of infants, and the principal food of all
young children. The intestinal diseases,
counted non-contagious, carry off by tan the
greatest number.
Experience has proved that these troubles
may be modified, or in some cases entirely
eliminated BY the use of germless food. By
feeding the child only milk that has been
sterilized and water that has been boiled, we
cease to feed the disease and begin to nour-
ish the child SteriIized milk is compare
lively new discovery, and the differences
between its use and abuse is not yet dis
tinctly defined in the public mind. The sp-
parent simplicity of its production has mis-
led many physicians as well as mothers into
applying the name to an article which pos
sesses none of the virtues of sterilized milk.
Milk is really sterilized only when it is en-
tirely free from germ life.
What German Scientists Discovered.
American investigation on the subject
has been extremely crude, and so far is still
totally inadequate as basis for sound con-
clusion. Fortunately, in Europe the sub
ject has received due consideration. Ger
man scientists especially, have given much
time to the investigation of the effect Of
various kinds of milk in intestinal diseases
of children. Tyndall, Lister and Pasteur
have themselves taken milk from the COW,
under varying degrees of atmospheric pur-
ity, carefully noting in each case the favor
able or unfavorable environment, and they
unanimously declare that all milk from a
healthy COW is absolutely pure-that is,
germless, as it flows from the udder; but
that its composition, its animal heat and its
exposed surface all combine to render it q
most favorable medium for the cultivation
of bacteria. While on the other hand the
atmosphere of the ordinary stable, swarm
ing as it is with germ life, at once furnishes
in plentiful measure the seed which coming
in contact with the milk at once begin to
multiply at an appalling rate.
Koch, Escherich, and their celebrated CO.
workers have supplemented the investiga-
tions of milk, in it's natural condition by
valuable studies of the germ life which Is
found in the intestinal tract of an infant,
and have noted its variation in health and
disease They could conclusively demon
strate the poisonous effects of impure and
germ laden milk upon the delicate di-
gestive organs of child.
Germany Is Taking No Chances.
All these scientists conclude that there is
no strictly pure milk except that taken di-
rectly from the udder of the cow and that
the milk delivered in cities, whether II, "a
or sc hours old, is swarming with microbes,
and that it varies only in the degree of its
dangerous properties. In Germany the
danger of using unheated milk is so clearly
comprehended that legal enactions are be-
coming every yearmore stringent, andit Is
already difficult for traveller in that coun-
try to procure glass of milk that has not
been first steamed or boiled.
In America intelligent mothers who per-
sonally attend to the ster1lizing, and the
physicians who use milk that is really, and
not simply nominally, sterilized, have with
out exception obtained remarkably favora-
BILE results; while mothers whose dOmes-
tics superintend the ''sterilizing. land young
physicians whose work lies chiefly in the
babies hospitals and Asylums in large cities
usually declare that sterliized milk Is over
milk, which they by courtesy call sterilized,
nd do not obtain good results
Contrary TO the more mature opinion OF
European authorities an American physi-
clan will occasionally affirm that sterihzinS
milk renders it less digestible, because il
coagulates the albumen. Cooking meat and
eggs coagulates the albumen, but we do nos
therefore conclude that meat and eggs
should be eaten raw. On the contrary, IL is
known that cooking meat renders it more
digestible providing always that it is not
overdone. So in like manner the digesHbil-
ity of sterilized milk depends upon the de-
gree and duration of the heat which IS ap-
piled. Milk that is swarming with microbes
canno. be stegiiiZed without prolonged heas
applied on successive daES. and So NOS
without too great ,coagulation. But fresh
milk can be freed from germs with such
moderate application OF steam that when
0nce the milk is Teaerated it is difficult to
it from the new milk Of the
milking pail.
One nurse who published her prejudices
lgainst sterilized milk explained that is
would disagree with her charge, even though
the steamed it three hours. 1t is as IL we
we're to roast beef for Il hours in a hot oven,
md as result of its unwholesomeness do
,lare that all beef is indigestible.
FRANCES FISHER Woon