Soxhlet. The proper quantity of milk sugar is added, but instead of adding
the right quantity of cream or fat--a very difficult thing to do--the
equivalent quantity of extra milk sugar is used. Although not
theoretically satisfactory, in practice it answers very well. We have
found it to agree very well with infants. To cow's milk of pure average
quality, add half its volume of water containing 12.3 per cent. of milk
sugar; or, what amounts to the same thing, to a pint of cow's milk add one
and a quarter ounce of milk sugar and half-a-pint of water. It is
preferable to Pasteurise by placing the bottle of milk in a vessel of
water. This water is to be heated until the milk shows a temperature of
about 75° C. or 165° F., but must not exceed 80° C. or a change in the
albumen of the milk takes place which affects its digestibility. Keep at
this temperature for about ten minutes. If not required at once, a plug
of cotton wool should be placed in the neck of the bottle, and it should
be kept in a cold place until required. Professor Soxhlet does not advise
the addition of lime water. The proteids are not of the same composition
as in human milk (the calf being a ruminating animal)--and it is a common
plan to add water or barley water to milk until it is so watered down that
it cannot curdle into tough curds. An infant has thus either to distend
its stomach with a large quantity of watery nourishment, or else to get
insufficient food. Sometimes it is necessary to peptonise the milk a
little. At the Leipzig infants hospital, and also the Hygienic Institute,
they give to infants, up to 9 months old, Prof. Soxhlet's mixture, except
that an equal volume of water is added to the milk. Milk, cheese, and
especially hen's eggs contain a very large proportion of proteid. When
added to food poor in proteid they improve its nutritive quality. It has
often been said, and with truth, that some vegetarians by the profuse use
of animal products, consume as much, or even more proteid of animal origin
than the average person who includes flesh food in his dietary. An excess
of proteid from these sources is less injurious as eggs contain no purins,