The Mother and Her ChildSadler, William S. (William Samuel)
Science
The Mother and Her Child
Sadler, William S. (William Samuel)
Child care; Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene; Pregnancy
When certified milk cannot be had, it is absolutely dangerous to give
raw, unboiled, or unpasteurized milk to the baby, particularly in warm
weather; for the countless millions of manure germs found in each
teaspoon of ordinary milk not only disturbs the baby's digestion, but
actually makes him sick, causing colic, diarrhea, and cholera
infantum. The only way this milk can be rendered safe is by cooking
it--actually killing the bacteria. This process of boiling, however,
does not make good milk out of bad milk nor clean milk out of that
which is dirty, it simply renders the milk less dangerous.
There are two methods of killing bacteria--sterilization and
pasteurization. By sterilization is meant the process of rendering the
milk germ free by heating, by boiling. Many of the germs found in milk
are comparatively harmless, merely causing the souring of milk; but
other microbes are occasionally present which cause serious diseases,
such as measles, typhoid and scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis,
and diarrhea. It is always necessary to heat the milk before using in
warm weather, and during the winter it is also important when
infectious or contagious diseases are prevalent.
Milk should be sterilized when intended for use on a long journey, and
may be eaten as late as two or three days afterward.
To sterilize milk, place it in a well-protected kettle and allow to
boil for one hour and then rapidly cool. This process renders it more
constipating, and for some children many of its nutritive properties
seem to be destroyed, as scurvy is often the result of its prolonged
use. When a child must subsist upon boiled milk for a long period, he
should be given the juice of an orange each day. Children are not
usually strong and normal when fed upon milk of this character for
indefinite periods. All living bacteria (except the spores or eggs)
may be destroyed by boiling milk for one or two minutes.
PASTEURIZATION
When baby is to use the milk within twenty-four hours,
"pasteurization" is better than boiling as a method of destroying
microbes.
There are many pasteurizers on the market which may be depended upon,
among which are the Walker-Gordon Pasteurizer, and Freeman's
Pasteurizer; but in the absence of either of these pasteurization may
be successfully accomplished by the following method:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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