OUR BABIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14445, 11 February 1909, Page 5

OUR BABIES.

Br Htcsia. Published under (he auspices of (lie Society iov iiie Prtmotiuii of the lleaith o! Women and Children. WHY MILK FAILS TO KKF.P. Even in the warmest weal her milk cannot go had so long us we cxcliii'» ilie !i|lh> microscopic specks culled germ* or mi(•robes. Ii is hard lo make people L.-diove tliat any liipiid food may lm freely exposed to perfectly pure air for weeks or months without appreciable change, beyond evapo. ration, yet siieh is ilie r-a.-o. If ll:e cow is kepi as (loan as possible and lirsed down before milking, and is provided wilh a chui holliind cover for ilie belly, flank-, and wider, il is possible to got a hoi.'ie of pure milk ipiiie free from g-=rn:>. However, In spile uf ail precautions, one or mow Kt-rniTi W'll be pi.'cticnily sere lo sain enlry to some of our boiiles -.hough with due attention a larger or smaller proportion will be gei in-free. Such mill; will keep quite indefinitely i; we carefully plug the 'iiioulh of Ilie boltlc with sterilised 'colion wool. The cotton wool acts as a hirer, -pieveuling the entry of germs, Inn Idling -,ho air pts.s in and om. Microbes are solid living particles, and, small as ibev ar->. they arc heavier than the air in' which Ihoy are suspended. This enit-es liiem to Ixi constantly falling and s-'itling. There may be only a few downs or there may be thousands in the air of a room, but he there few or many, ihey are settling, lyfiling all Hi" lime. „o ilia! every solid objeci becomes, covered wiih them, just as il would become covered with line <hisl. Our damp, liuelyoorrngated, hairy hands form wonderful germ collectors, and we may pick up enough to spoil a laiilful of miik by merely placing the tips of our fingers on an apparently dean snow-white linen table-cloth which has lain spread on the table from one meal-time to another. * DIvALIXf-i WITH GERMS.

The simplest, means of iii-nixf. kid of germs is to wash them away with pure boiLd water. Thus we clojiuio hands, utensils, cloths, and every solid eollectini; object. The most effective way to kill Senus present In a Huid is to boil the fiiml, but prolonged boiling is needed to kill certain seeds, or rather spores, of the most resistivo microbes. On the other baud, living germs I bat have "liatc-licd-out" are readily killed, few of them being able lo .stand healing lo 15fldeg I'ahr. for live minutes. This gives us the key to dealing with milk. V.'e heat lo 155ileg h'ahr. for live or ten minutes, and I lien ccol the fluid rapidly by placing the vessel in running wafer. The object of cooling is to prevent the hatching ami intiliipiyini,' of spores. In warm lluk!e, on ihe contrary, germs increase with marvellous rapidity. Thus it is found that clear spring water, kept in t-lie house in a walor-boitle for a few days, will hoconm crowded with microbes. In this condition the tasic and smell are often distinctly unpleasant, and such water is liable lo give rise to diarrhoea.

CHICKENS AND CALVES. ■Water provided for fowls, if lcfl slagnnting for a day in warm summer weather, is liable to carry oIV crowds of promising chickens by causing chicken cholera or summer diarrhoia. The microbes which have boon growing apace in Ibe mixture of warm water and lood-parlicles derived from the bills of the fowls grow still more rampantly in tlio warmer bowels of the chickens. The tame thing occurs in ihe case of hand-fed calves, unless we are, extremely careful as to the cleansing of the cans and the freshness and purity of the milk.

Almost every calf ihat dies dies from "scouring" or diarrhoea, caused by crowds of living microbes which have boon allowed to develop and multiply in ilio mill;. The summer-diarrhwa of bottle-fed babies is practically the same disease, and arises from the same cause combined with unsuitable composition of the food and defective hygiene (lack of fresh air, 511115111110, exercise, etc.)

MILK AND MICROBES. Milk may be regarded as tin? universal food for germs—the medium in whioh all germs revel and grow apace, unless it is properly safeguarded. Lord Lister, the father of modern surgery, writing on "Fermentation," said: "I once met with a microbe, but only one, th;it would not live on mill;; for, extremely numerous as the varieties of germs are, 'almost all of them seem to thrive in thai limiid." If not present in comparatively large numbers in milk and if mostly in the unbalrhcd spore .stage, ordinary microbes tlo little or no harm when swallowed, but, if abundant, they and their products arc capable of bringm? about diarrhoea, poisoning, and deaih in a. very snort time. This cannot. he too strongly insisted on, because, one often hears people say: ''Oh, well, seeing there are such crowds of germs everywhere, and seeing that we must swallow plenty of them, a few thousands wore or less cannot inake much difference." No argument could be more fallacious. In the course of their growth microbes give off poisonous substances, and the effect of these, as regards iho baby, will depend mainly on the total amount of such poison introduced into or generated in the alimentary canal. A hundredth of a grain of strychnine may act as a ionic and do actual good whore a grain would cause almost instantaneous convulsions and speedy death, and so it is with the products of microbes,

TOWN MILK SUPPLY. In summer time the milk as it is delivercd at the home is liable to be crowded with germs, and will certainly he so if what is sold as Ihe morning's supply happens to lie mixed, as it frequently is, with the previous evening's milking.' Milk as it is delivered in the poorer quarters of New, York and other cities is found to contain sometime.; as many as five million microbes per teaspoonlul!

The following illustration chows the contrast between the miroecopie appearance of pure fresh cows' milk free from germs and contaminated milk: —

! The circles are fho far-globules suspended in the clear invisible fluid of the mill;—this fluid ljcinu a solution of iuilk-?ii!>ai', protcids. and sails. ' Koto, :n the lower impure specimen, the crowds of mi'-robes. and also the coalescing of tiu> fat globules, as shown by ilie increated size and smaller number of the eiicles. Not oniy ■!.". the microbes c;ive off poisonous products, but they feed on tlh> milk, and radically change its nature and properties. ]'RKVKXTION.T() ri'.KVRNT DaXGF.K i'UOM MICKOBES. (li (let clean pure fresh mill; which has been properly' safeguarded and rapidly cooled by means of runuinsr water immediately after milkini;. (2) If cold water is available in the home, the mother should further chill the milk dirccily she reteive.s it by pUiciiig the jut; in cool ruimiiij; water for half an hour, or by iMittiiis; it in i-haiijres of cool water t-everal times. (31 Keep the tooled milk loosely covered in a cool airy outside safe, as directed above. (4) If in any doubt as In the weather, or us to proper cooling-, don't keep milk (prepared or otherwise) for more than 12 hours without heatinir or reheating to 155d»g Fa.hr. for. say, 10 minutes. Then cool rapidly in water. Keep iho jug loosely covered ami a. A cool as possible, outside ih'c house. (5) On the very warmest days it may be advisable to scald or even boil the portion of the baby's milk which remaius over in the. pvcuing, and .then cool rapidly, and

keep as cool a.- possible. This is iiof needed «r desirable where there are proper facilities tor cooling and keeping cool. heating 10 Ist) degrees for 10 minutes lining then siiiliciciu.

'*"'■-:> niiifli cnipha-.s cip.r.ot be pher-d nn tli" tirgoui need ro cool mill; as rapidly as possible with water after it has Ivon heated. (Vnvrwiso stray jK.-nns which find entry will grow and iimliiplv with extreme vapidity.

if;) If milk is set for preparing " topmilk" on wry warm runnier days il is safer not to i.'i. i.h" jug '-taiwl "cr mine fish when received and can be !:•-»! all Ihe time at or hr-hnv 55 derritos i'"-,',iiv. a. lower i.ereeniage of fat in t'le baby's f < >;;'!. bin ibis is reiillv an advantage aisnv ilie need of the body for fuel is 'vs.'.-ned when the weather is very warm, .i'lirthor. the giving of less fat- at such limes diminishes the tendency to summer diarriirea.