The care of the baby : a manual for mothers and nurses, containing practical directions for the management of infancy and childhood in health and in disease / by J. P. Crozer Griffith.

  • Griffith, J. P. Crozer (John Price Crozer), 1856-1941.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The care of the baby : a manual for mothers and nurses, containing practical directions for the management of infancy and childhood in health and in disease / by J. P. Crozer Griffith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    141/462 (page 137)
    determine. The milk both of the ass and of the mare is considerably closer in composition to human milk than is that of other domestic animals. That of the goat is more like that of the cow. It is rare, however, that either of the first two milks can be obtained, and they are apt to be expensive ; and since all of them need in any case to be prepared in various ways before using, cow's milk becomes the only baby-food usually practicable. That it is, however, much unlike woman's milk in some particu- lars can be seen by consulting the following table, which gives approximate analyses of the two fluids. Woman's Milk. Cow's Milk. Reaction ...... Bacteria Water Total solids .... Fat . Alkaline . Absent . 87-88% • 12-13% 4% . 1-1.5% .7% 0.2% Reaction Bacteria Water Total solids .... Fat . Acid. . Present. .86-87% • 13-14% . 45^ Proteids Milk-sugar .... Asii Proteids Milk-sugar Ash -4% • 4-5% . 0.7% The specific gravity of woman's milk does not differ materially from that of cow's milk, the normal range being from 1028 to 1033. Cow's milk is, as the table shows, slightly acid in reaction in the condition in which it is served by the milkman. As drawn from the cow it ought to be alkaline, but it very quickly becomes acid, owing to faults in the milking and exposure to air. When we consult the table we are struck by the fact that woman's milk has the same percentage of fat as cow's milk, that it is almost twice as rich in sugar, and that it has only one-quarter as much of the proteids. By this last term is designated that nitrogenous portion of the milk upon which the production of new tissue in