Sp. Gr. av. 1.031 av. 1.031. Fat 4. % Fat 4. % Protein 1.50% Protein 3.50% Sugars 7. % Sugars 4.50% Salts .2 % Salts .75% Water 87.3 % Water 87.3 % Reaction Alkaline Reaction Acid Bacteria Very few Bacteria Many Both range from 1.026 to 1.06. [Illustration: Fig. 130.—Elements of human milk. (Eden.)] The fats are substantially the same, but the fat of cow’s milk is less easily digested than the fat of mother’s milk. The protein of mother’s milk is virtually half lactalbumin and half casein, which is only slightly coagulated into soft flocculent curds by the action of rennin and acids, while the casein of cow’s milk is nearly three times greater in amount than the lactalbumin and is coagulated into coarse, tough curds. The sugars in both cases are lactose in solution, but mother’s milk contains a much higher percentage. Cow’s milk contains three times the quantity of salts found in human milk, but the water is the same in both. So, while the two milks seem in comparison to be much alike, in reality they are quite different; hence it is necessary to modify cow’s milk in such a way as to make it not like mother’s milk chemically, but to make it _act_ like mother’s milk. It is extremely difficult to bring up an infant on artificial food, and inasmuch as half the infants that die during the first year, perish from intestinal disorders, it is imperative that every resource should be exhausted before the breast feedings are abandoned. It is fallacious to believe that anyone can feed a baby, or that feeding consists merely in trying one food after another until one is found to agree. Only a competent physician should prescribe the food, and he should study his problem and make his modifications just as he would alter his medicines for a particular disease. However, it is necessary for the nurse to know how to carry out the doctor’s orders intelligently and how to report to him the conditions present. In prescribing for the child, the doctor usually has some definite outline in his mind, such as Age and weight. _Example_: 3 months old; weight 10 pounds; 7 feedings; 1 every 3 hours. Interval, three hours. Amount in each bottle, four ounces. Formula: Milk, 12 oz. Diluent, 16 oz. (Cereal water or plain water.) Sugar, ½ oz. Flour ball, if any, ½ oz. Boil if ordered. The infant should not take more than two ounces of milk to a pound of weight in each twenty-four hours.