It is hardly necessary to discuss separately the various kinds of milk
which have led to scurvy in the course of infant feeding.[15] The
principles laid down in the preceding discussion hold good for milk of
all kinds. Heat will destroy a certain amount of vitamine, and, if the
heating is followed by aging, still more will be lost. If an interval
elapses and a second heating ensues, there will be further loss of
vitamine. It should never be forgotten in considering foods in their
relation to the causation of scurvy, that _the amount of food_ given
must not be overlooked. For example, a pint of ordinary pasteurized milk
will lead to scurvy, whereas a quart in most cases will be sufficient to
tide the baby over until the period of mixed feeding. No general rule
can be laid down, however, as may be judged from the fact that dried
milk which has been subjected to almost all the influences which are
deleterious to the antiscorbutic vitamine--heating, drying, aging, all
carried out in a neutral medium--nevertheless retains its specific
potency.
[15] Ausset reports a definite case of scurvy developing in a baby nine
months old, which had received buttermilk almost since birth. At the
time of admission to the hospital it was getting 900 c.c. a day. This
case is interesting on account of the acid nature of the food.
Infantile scurvy has always been far more prevalent in England and in
America than in Europe, notwithstanding the fact that on the continent
practically all milk for babies is boiled or sterilized. This has been
ascribed, and probably rightly so, to the widespread usage of
_proprietary foods_ in the English-speaking countries. Among the cases
reported by the American Pediatric Society about 60 per cent. had been
given foods of this description. How is this relationship to be
explained? These preparations in general may be stated to consist of
cereals, sugar, with occasionally a small amount of dried milk; they are
mixed with varying proportions of water and milk and then cooked. It is
evident that two important causative factors of scurvy are thus
furnished, namely, a small and inadequate quota of milk and the
application of heat. In most instances not more than sixteen to twenty
ounces of milk are used to make up the day's feeding, and frequently
this has been previously pasteurized. But there is an additional factor
which comes into play in this connection, one to which we have recently
drawn attention in treating of "The Deleterious Effect of the
Alkalization of Infants' Food." It has been shown that the antiscorbutic
vitamine is peculiarly sensitive to the faintest alkaline reaction, in
which medium it rapidly undergoes deterioration, and even total
destruction if heat is applied. Proprietary foods, with but few
exceptions, are alkaline, having been rendered so by the addition of
potassium carbonate or bicarbonate, in order to prevent acid
fermentation of the fat and to counterbalance the relative poverty of
potassium in cow's milk.
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