=Care of Feeding-bottles.= Great care must be taken in cleansing feeding-bottles. When they can be washed immediately after using, it is easy to make them perfectly clean; but when this is impracticable they should be put to soak in _cold_ water, then washed with hot soap-suds, and last boiled for ten minutes in clear water. If flecks dry on the inside, put a teaspoon of rice, or coarse salt, into the bottle with a little water, and shake well until all is removed. Never use shot: it might cause lead poisoning. Plain rubber nipples alone should be used, never the tube attachment. The nipples should be washed clean and dried after each nursing. Before again using the nipple it should be put into boiling water for ten minutes, and only the rim of it should be touched in handling. The nipple should never be put into the mouth of another person to test the milk. =Condensed Milk.= When a large percentage of the water of milk is evaporated, and sugar added, a thick syrup is formed, known as condensed milk. It is made extensively in Switzerland and America. When sealed air-tight in cans it will keep indefinitely. Its average composition--a mean of 41 analyses by Prof. Leeds--is as follows: Water 30.34% Fat 12.10% Milk-sugar 16.62% Cane-sugar 22.26% Albuminoids 16.07% Ash 2.61% ------- Total, 100.00 Owing to the additional sugar it is impossible to dilute it so that the protein and sugar shall approach the standard of human milk. Children fed with it are plump, but have soft flesh; they are large, but not strong, and lack the power of endurance and resistance to disease. Their teeth come late, and they are very likely to have rickets.[62] This is enough to indicate that it is not a proper food upon which to feed a child exclusively. Condensed milk is valuable in emergencies or in traveling, and may also be used occasionally when for any reason the milk supply fails. It has the advantage of being free from ferments and easily kept. There are physicians who recommend the use of condensed milk, and no doubt, compared with the germ-laden, watery fluid called milk, obtainable in the poorer sections of large cities, it is infinitely better. It should always be diluted with at least ten times its bulk of water. =Preserved Milk.= Preserved milk is milk which has been condensed and canned without the addition of sugar. It would be a valuable food for children were it not that it is expensive, and will keep but a few hours after the can is opened. By sterilizing it in flasks with narrow necks, plugged with cotton, it may be kept as other milk is for an indefinite time. As soon as the can is opened, the contents should be poured into a glass or earthen vessel, for, on exposure of the milk to the air, chemical action takes place with the tin.[63]