Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-01-18
MILK A REMARKABLE FOOD
Some New and Important Light
on It's Composition and
Effect as Food.

Doctor Henry Dwight Chaplin, bac-
teriologist of New York, man of wide
reputation, has in the North American
review an interesting article on the
food qualities of milk.
He discusses the anatomy of milk, or
us composition, and says that about
tour years ago it was suggested that
4 possibly the curdling of milk in the
stomach might serve a useful purpose
IN digestion, and the fact that milk
formed curd might be one of the rea-
sons for it's being furnished to young
animals.
Dr. Chapin says to-day we have an
entirely different conception of milk
as a food than was held by the lead
ing authorities five years ago, and
what was mysterious and unfathom-
able then is now as clear as day
Some of the most interesting points
OF DR.. Chapin's article, briefly con-
densed, are as follows:
The COW supplies nourishment in at
least five different forms to suit differ
ent stages of the Calls development.
Milk is the last of the five special
forms of food supplied by nature for
developing the animals.
Milk curd is similar to lean meat in
composition and serves to build blood
and tissue.
The fat and sugar in milk supply
fuel to maintain heat and energy.
From a food chemists standpoint
there is no difference between beef
steak, a pork chop and a curd of milk.
But the placing of too much value
on food analysis often leads to err
roneous and absurd conclusions
The suitability of the material as
food can only be determined by feed
ing experiments with various animals.
1t may suit one species and be wholly
untitled for another.
Pepsin is secreted by the stomach
for the purpose of digesting meat and
other foods When pepsin is added to
cows milk it does not commence to-
digest it, but changes it into a solid
jelly.
The gastric secretion of the adult is
acid. like vinegar, and when this acid
comes ! into contact with the jelly it
causes a. remarkable change to take
place.
The jelly begins to shrink and be-
come tough and fbrous like the breast
Of a chicken. 1t is then a solid food
Milk is therefore food particularly
suited to the digestive organs while
they are developing and while the di-
gestivet secretions are weak, as in case
Of a young child, but becomes stronger
as they become stronger.
The differences between human milk
and cows milk are very great, and
cows milk should never be fed to
young infants without modifying it so
1T will not form an indigestible mass
In the child's stomach.
At one time it was widely believed |
that cows milk could be changed into
human milk by a simple process, but
It is now known that the process pro-
posed 70 change cows milk into hui
man milk by the adding of alkalis has
no such effect, but prevents the action
of the pepsin and acids of the stomach
on the milk and throws the milk in I
fluid condition into the intestines.
Milk as 1t leaves the cows udder con-
ta1ns bacteria which are multiplied al
most beyond computation. If bacteria
We're as harmful as some imagine no
one would be alive, for who has not |
drunk buttermilk or eaten cottage
cheese made from sour milk, which
contains so many bacteria that few
could grasp the numbers contained in
a pint of it,
By keeping the cows and their sur
roundings clean the number of bac-
terra that get into the milk will be
greatly lessened.
By cooling the milk to below as de-
grees and keeping it cool the multiple
cation of bacteria is prevented.
Milk kept cool for a week may be
in much better condition than milk ten
hours old that has been kept at body
temperature.