Baccillus Toils to Help Cure King’s Illness

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 561, 14 January 1929, Page 11

Baccillus Toils to Help Cure King’s Illness

‘ ‘Lhitch” Milk is Uscd in Auckland Hospital BETTER THAN “BULGAR BUG” “Special milk for his Majesty by air mail from Holland" is not the rare thing the cablegrams would have us believe. Patients in Auckland Hospital have been drinking “acidophilus” milk for years, and the laboratory has been a miniature supply depot for doctors’ prescriptions of the clotted I iquid. Better than “Bulgarian bug,” that j strange growth which found its way into half the households in the land a few years ago, and was credited with all kinds of miracles, the bacillus acidophilus has not yet come into popular esteem, but it has excellent credentials from the experts. It has not nearly the presence of the “bug.” being simply a thin film on its home of jelly or egg pulp. AIDS DIGESTION Planted in a bottle of milk, and kept: warm for a day or two, it turns it to curds. The resulting milk is claimed to be “the safest and most easilydigested form of food which it is possible to supply.” Apart from its tremendous food value, the acidophilus milk is a corrective of digestive and intestinal trouble, and that is why it is prescribed lor the hospital patients. The bacillus makes and lives in veryacid media, hence its name, and it cleanses out the putrefactive bacteria of the body. Through the courtesy of Dr. W. Gilmour, director of the hospital laboratpry, a Sun man was shown the bacillus and his work. Under the microscrope he is a short motionless rod. and when stained shows rows of dots inside. Bulgarian bug, Dr. Gilmour explained, was really a mixture of various bacilli, including the Bulgarian, with yeasts. The acidophilus is a pure breed. GETS ACCLIMATISED The main difference between the bug and the bacillus is that it is claimed that the former never becomes at home iu the bowels, and as soon as the diet stops the results are finished with. “The bacillus is supposed to become acclimatised there,” it was explained. “He persists there, and exercises his good effects for a long time. For instance, if a patient takes the milk for every day for a week, the bacillus persists for a very considerable time afterwards, working his good effects.” The first cultures of the bacillus were Imported from Am.erica about seven years ago. Considerable care has to be taken to keep it free from contamination, and new cultures axe made each month. Bulgarian bug became contaminated when it was handled by housewives. The laboratory therefore keeps the key to the making of the milk, and it sends the supply out to tile doctors’ orders, often to outside patients. Some medical men are strong believers in its health-giving properties, and consume it every day. It is not the most pleasant tipple invented, but it has been discovered that it may be eaten with pleasure with stewed fruit, and smothered with sugar. The bacillus prefers skim milk to fresh, and the laboratory experts of course sterilise the milk before it is used. “Why Is it called Dutch milk?” asked the reporter. “Goodness knows,” said Dr. Gilmour, “unless they have Invented an improvement in Holls“d of which we have not heard, and that is extremely unlikely.”