OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 46, 17 November 1917, Page 3

OUR BABIES

TBt Higeu.l

Published under the auspices of tho Booioty for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at tlio top of a precipice tlion to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." THE MILK QUESTION AND INFANT WELFARE. Dr. OlmmptalouD's Address (Continued). Last week we gave part of Dr. Ohamptaloup's lecture, delivered during Baby Week at Dunedin. The lecture was well illustrated with beautiful lantern slideß, and concluded with a most interesting series of moving plQtureß illustrating the life of some of the bacteria which prove inimical to human beings. Following on what appeared in last week's column, Dr. Champtaloup said that milk was the most difficult of all our standard articles of diet to obtain and handle in a safe and satisfactory manner. It required scrupulous care from pasture to pail, and from pall to palate-oaro which it seldom received. Furthermore, it decomposed more, quickly than any other food. A further reason why we had a milk Question was because most milk' was oonBumed raw. We had reoently come to realise that uncooked articles, such as valor, milk, oysters, lettuce, etc., juiight convey infection. Cooking destroyed germs. Therefore the sanitarian regarded cooking as one. of the most important hyglenio safeguards that had ever been introduced.by man for his protection. MEMO. BY EYGEIA. While agreeing with Dr. Ohamptaloup that cooking renders milk, oysters, let•tuces, etc., safer in the senso that inimical bacteria are killed by the high temperature, it must be borne in mind that the cooking and sterilising of all our food deprives us of very. Important substances which play an essential part in perfect growth and nutrition. This is just one of these situations in which we have to strike the happy mean between needless exposure to risks from the. germs of hydatids and bacteria on the one hand, and the deprivation of vital principles contained in raw food on the other. In this dilemina I consulted LieutenantColonel Burnett, Professor of Surgery, who, at the annual meeting of the fluiiket Society some years ago, gave an important address on the risks of hydatids, and he stated the present position very'clearly as follows:— As regardo the Old Country, where hydatids aie rare, one scarcely takes the question into account. I ate water-' ore3fl quite freely when in England, but 1 would draw the line at watercress here, because dogs are so liable to infect cress with their excreta. Such salads as lettuoe, celery, radishes, etc., specially grown in gardens for human consumption' aro much less liable to harbour the. ova of iiydatidfl, and if properly washed—a njjessary routine of oleanliness in auy case—there is practically no risk in eating suoh vegetables. One is bound to mention lettuces, etc., as sources of the disease; but tho one great channel by which the ova of hydatids gain access to the human boing was impure water drunk without boiling—water contaminated by the oxoreta of diseased dbg6. I shall deal with this further in a later article. Dr. Champtaloup's Address (continued). ililk was an essential article of wod3ne that was probably accountable for more sickness and more deaths tbtm all )ther foods put togother. Tho milk question was, then, a real problem of first uagnitude—worthy of our caroful thought md attention. There were a number of reasons why milk was sometime* harmful. Tho way wo,used milk to-day was an artiicial practice, if not an unnatural one. IVhen wo went against Nature we must lulfor tho consequeuces. Nature never intended tho milk of one mimal to be used by tho young of au>ther. It was further Quite evident that ifaturo intended the milk to be partaken ir while fresh, at the fountain of its production. Many factors besides time, amperature, and baoteria hastened the letorioration or influenced tho quality of he milk, such as handling, separating, nixing, transporting, and bottling. Dirt and bacteria ontored, dccomipoai,ion proceeded, so that a glass of ordlniry market milk might hp very unlike the ood that left the mammary gland. We vould soon learn that bjiioterja loved nilk. They loved it as much as tho baby lid. Milk was a pcrtcot food for tho ;rowth and development of germs. They ;rew iu milk at a prodigious rate, and leuco tho danger was Rometinies Tory treat. Infeotod milk might cause diseaso md death in a, week, month, or evon a oar or more afterwards. Babies were tilled with milk in an insiduous way. It ehoutd never lo forgotten than if pater were to bo drawn, es milk was, rom the body of a cow standing in a table, by the hand of workmen of questionable cleanliness, and then stored, and ranßported ovor long distances in imwrfeoUy cleansed, closed cans, being furher manipulated more or less, and finally eft at the doors at an uncertain hour of he day, few would onro to drink it, beiause its pollution and stateness would be jbvioiis. It was oloar, moreover, that nilk required and deserved more careful reatment than water. f Bacteria. Dr. Ohamptaloup went on to speak of' . laoteria, and their discovery; of their orms and methods of development, and .ho diseases they [produced. He referred ,o tho reproduction of bacteria, and stated ,hat It had been estimated that ji singlo term would iu 24 hours give rise to 17 nillions of descendants, and these deecenlants would in five days maJte a ina«B that ivould completely fill the ocenns on the >arth'e surface. But ho pouittd out that )acteria were constantly checked by adforso oonditions and in other ways. The great majority of dißease-profluc-ng bacteria woiild be killed if moißt heat it 60deg. centigrade or 14ydog. Fahrenheit itere appliod for 20 minutes. If applied 'or only 10 minutes, say, 150deg. F. must - ie used', while for an hour 13Sdeg. F. would IB sufficient. Tho lecturer went on to deal laxt with tho pasteurisation at conslderiblc length, stating that it saved life and prevented sioknoss. In concluding, Dr. Ohamptaloup said, amongst the diseases known to be conveyeoV by milk might bo mentioned tuberculosl I ', scarlet fever, diphtheria, gastro-lntestinal diseases of infants, • snptic sore throat, and typhoid fever. Some of the diseases mentioned ivere of bovine origin—tuberculosis and septio sore throat. Tho majority, however, ivere of human origiu, for oows did not mffer from typhoid fover and diphtheria.