MILK PRESERVATIVES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1751, 27 September 1905, Page 26

MILK PRESERVATIVES

Following the the results of some experiments on animals with milk preservatives. Five kittens were fed on milk containing 80 grains of boric acid per gallon (equal to l-700th). In four weeks all were dead. Five kittens were fed on milk containing 40 grains per gallon; two died in the third week, and the rest in the fourth. Five control kittens received pure milk; none died. The diminution in weight in the animals receiving the boric acid milk was very marked, and brought into significant relief by comparison with the increase in weight in those fed on the normal fluid. It was seen, in a day or two, that the kittens treated with the boric milk were losing appetite. . Diarrhoea, in? activity, and depression followed then rapid emaciation and death. With milk containing formalin similar results were obtained. Of five kittens treated with milk containing one part formaldehyde in 50,000 of milk, three died in five weeks; the average increase in weight was 177.6 grammes, compared with 251.1 grammes of four control kittens treated with normal milk; with milk containing 1-25,000 th of formaldehyde, another seines showed an average gain of 196.6 grammes, as against 325.7 grammes gained by kittens fed on normal milk. Of a third lot treated with milk containing one part of formaldehyde in 12,500 of milk, two died in the fourth week; the average gain in weight was only 96.4 gramme®, against 312.5 grammes with the “controls” fed on normal milk.—" Lancet, London.