OUR BABIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13837, 24 February 1909, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

BY HYGEIA. Published under the auspices of tho bucieiy lor the Promotion of the Health of Women and Chilren. MILK. If milk is corked or tightly covered, so as to exclude the free passage of air, it tends to go bad and become highly poisonous, instead of merely going sour. Other forms of poisonous fermentation may be brought about by contamination of milk with germs contained in filth, etc., and by not keeping the milk cool. If pure milk is expqsed in pure open air it becomes invaded by a special form of minute microcopic plant, the " lactic acid bacillus," which is found everywhere. This microbe feeds on the "sugar of milk," and converts a portion of it into the acid which gives rise to souring. This process is really a beneficent one; however, in the natural course of events it should not take place outside the body, but in the stomach and intestine, under the influence of lactic acid microbes, which are always present there. It is interesting to note that soured milk in the form of buttermilk is used with advantage as a food for babies, as well as for adults, in some cases of indigestion and diarrhoea. The explanation is a simple one. There are thousands of different kinds of microbes, and when one kind fully establishes itself it may give rise to substances which render it impossible for certain other dangerous microbes to flourish in the same fluild. Lactic acid in such a'substance, and the bacteria which give rise to some ordinary forms of fermentative diarrhoea cannot grow and multiply when much of it is present. Lactic acid can not only check certain poisonous forms of fermentation, but it actually assists in the digestion of the casein and albumen of milk. This fact, again, is one among many reasons why sugar of milk, and not cane sugar, should be used for adding to cow's milk when preparing baby-food. Cane sugar feeds other microbes, and undergoes a different and harmful form of fermentatioYi, provocative instead of preventative of indigestion and diarrhoea. Mr Dooley, with his usual insight and com-mon-sense, puts the whole matter in a nutshell. ME DOOLEY ON MICROBES. "I niver heerd of mickrobes till a few years ago, whin 1 was told they was a kind iv animals or bugs that crawled around in ye like spiders. I see pitchers iv thim in th' papers, with eyes like peoched eggs, till 1 dhreamed wan night I was a hayloft full iv bats. Thin th' dockter down tli' sthreet set pio r-r'«rht. Ho say th' mickrobes is a vigitable, on' ivry man is like a conservatory, full \v millions iv these potted plants. Some ar-re cood f'r ye an some ar-re bad. "Whin th' chube roses an' geranyums is flourishin' an' liftin' their dainty petals to th' sun ye're

healthy, but whin th' other flowers gets tlr best iv these nosegays 't is time to call in a dockter. Th' dockter is a kind iv gardener f'r ye. 'T is his business f'r to encourage th' good mickrobes, makin' two pansises grow where wan grew befure, an' to hoe out tlr Canaieen thistle an' th' milkweed." PRACTICAL APPLICATION. The practical application of Mr Dooley's remarks is• simple and obvious: Don't encourage the wicked mirrobes (the noxious weeds) by using the foods which suit them, but not the baby, la other words — 1. Suckle the baby if possible. 2. Failing breast-milk, secure pure cow's milk, keep it cool, and adapt it to the baby's needs—that is, "humanise" it. 3. Don't resort to CANE SUGAR, CONDENSED MILK, or PATENT FOODS, none of which are entirely wholesome for the baby, and all of which favour the growth of noxious weeds. Last week we quoted from Professor Sedgwick's book, "Sanitary Science and Public Health," to show filthgerms are liable to gain access to milk. The following further extract, illustrating what sometimes happens on the farm, may cause some mother to go to a little pains in the effort to secure milk fit for her baby to drink: — POLLUTION AT THE SOURCE. The day lias gone by when a, pretty milkmaid went, in clean, white apron and with shining milkpail, to milk the cow with the crumpled horn out among the buttercups of a dewy morning. Instead, some old fellow stumbles out of the house and- to the barn with the stump of a clay pipe in his mouth, and wearing overalls and boots saturated and covered with filth acquired by a winter's use. When he reaches the barn, he selects some recumbent cow, kicks her until she stands up, dripping and slimy, and as he is a little late and the milk will have hardly time to cool before the man who carries it to the city will come along, he does not stop to* clean up behind the cow, but sitting down on a stool, proceeds to gather the milk and whatever else may j fall into the pail which perhaps is clean and perhaps is not. Of such refinements as washing the udder of the cow or wiping her flanks he has never heard. If he has, it is only to scoff. Then he strains the milk behind the cows. That is bad enough, but it is not all the story. Everyone knows that in straining the milk the strainer becomes obstructed more or less with dirt and filth, and when the milk does not run fast enough he would be a rare milker who hesitated to scrape away a place with his fingers so that the milk might run more freely. Those who have seen certain fingers, as I have, know what that means."