The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-10-09
PASTEURIZED'
MILK AN EVIL,
STERILIZED A
FAD, HE SAYS
:Dr. Louis Fisher, Authority In
High Standing, Condemns What
He Terms the Medical Graz.
for Changing Natural Condition
of the Food.
x y. y. -: ~

Il was delighted to see in the Her.
aid this morning the editorial Oh
The Sterilization Fad 1t was time
ly, eminently sensible and full Of
meat said DR.. Louis Fisher. The
Herald has properly characterized
this medical craze for sterilization
and pasteurzation as precisely VIVA,
II ia fad and it is one concern
ing which there is much misunder-
standing and no little misrepresenI a
ton
DR.. Fisher is a recognized authority
of high standing on the subject. tie
is a fellow CT the New York Academy
of Medicine, a visiting physician 20
the Willard Parker and Riverside
hospitals. former instructor in the
diseases of children in the New York
POSTGRADUATE Medical School ana
Hospital and the author of STANDARD
treatise on the diseases Of infancy
and childhood.
The fact is" Er. Fisher continued,
"men who have made careful study
or the subject are coming to recog-
nize more fully the fact thai sterlll-
zaticn and pasteurization of milk, III
stead of being cure all, as many
physicians and others would have us
think, is really an additional evil. IN
my hospital practice l uniformly use
the raw milk. merely modifying or
dilu:ing il 20 SUCH degree as 70
adapt it to the ass;milative capacity
of the child under treatment
"On the question of steriljZed milk
the weight of evidence seems to
show that the process, while preyen--
ing undue fermentation, so changes
certain of the natural ferments and
some of the fats that the milk is less
easily digested and less nutritious
The sterilization of milk is advocated
chiefly to destroy pathogenic bac-
terra. The profession has been ed
ucated to the belief that We must
kill all living micro-organisms IN fcod.
Sentiment Has Changed.
when the method was fist adyo-
Gated the profession adopted it in al
parts of the world, so that thousands
of babies have been brought up on
sterilized milk. Within the last few
years sentiment has changed. Ste"-
ilization accomplishes the destruction
Of pathogenic bacteria. but it also
possesses certain disadvantages, and
it must be constantly borne in mind
that the spores of pathogenic bac-
terra cannot be destroyed by the or
binary process of sterilization.
I'VE know now that a great many
children fed on sterilized milk de-
velop scurvy. The same is true OF
children fed on boiled milk. 1t is
evident that children require phos-
phatic and ferric proteids in a hv-
ing form, which are only contained
in raw milk In my own practice
have so frequently been disappointed
in the use of sterilized milk that
within the last few years I have en-
tirely discontinued its use.
What I have said Of sterilized
milk applies in lesser degree to pas.
teurized milk. have frequently found
cases of infants fed on pasteurized
milk that showed the same symp'
toms, though in a milder degree
than wha. we know to be true 81
sterilized milk feeding.
I'm applying the principle OF IN
FAINT feeding the first thing to do is
to initiate nature. That means to give
to the baby just what nature has or
dained for it to receive-raw milk
Since clinical experience has demon
strated that the prolonged use OF
sterilized milk and boiled milk will
produce scurvy, and that improve
ment is Immediately noted when raw
milk is given or raw beef juice, does
1T not seem more plausible to conf
merce feeding at once with raw milk,
rather than after scurvy or ricketts, is
developed?
ut is unfortunate that the general
public has been so frightened by the
stories of the ravages OF bacteria
that it does net seem to understand
that all forms of micro-organismc are
not necessarily a menace to health,
but that, on the other hand, manv
of these minute organisms are dis
tinctly useful and have their own ap-
pointed functions to perform in the
human body.
Nutrition Destroyed.
"As I have said before, steriliza-
ton or pasteurization does not re-
move the toxic dangers resulting from
the spores of pathogenic bacteria On
the contrary, these processes add TO
the already existing evil by DESTROY
ing the nutritive qualities OF
the milk and producing scurvy where