DIRECT FEEDING.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 119, 5 February 1879, Page 3

DIRECT FEEDING.

Dr. Gaillard Thomas, of New York, has written a paper on the substitution of milk for blood in the operation known as transfusion. This operation is at all times a very dangerous one, from the tendency of the blood to coagulate, and the difficulty iu effecting a perfect separation of the coagulable components. Hence the advisability of getting, if possible, some other fluid than blood which would answer the same purpose. Dr. Thomas mentions twelve cases of transfusion in which cow's milk lias been injected into the veins of comparatively dying patients, with good " restricts in all but one case. In that case fresh milk was not procurable, and the ordinary compound of the city dairymen was used instead. The mi Ik of cows and other m Q mmalia, though chemically inferior to blood, is more nearly allied to chyle, the material of which blood is made, than any other known substance, and hence in injecting milk nature is being followed very closely. Dr. Thomas says that the operation is infinitely easier than the transfusion of blood, and need not be

limited to those cases where prostration exists from hemorrhage, but may be used to tide over the fatal weakness attending Asiatic cholera, typhoid fever, and other diseases. The quantify of milk injected at oneoporation he ihinksmust not more than eight ounces, and it must be drawn from a healthy tow within a few minutes of the time of injection-