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modified cows' milk as a substitute for breast feeding- Cows'
milk differs materially from human milk. The principal difference
is that cows' milk contains more proteids and less sugar, and the
proteids or nitrogenous (tissue building) constituents are present
in cows' milk in a different and more indigestible form. It is
found by practical experience that diluting cows' milk with water,
until the proteids are present in the same or less proportion than in
human milk, is the best means of overcoming the latter difficulty ;
but in this way the strength of the fat and sugar is so much reduced
that it is necessary to add additional cream and sugar. Thus a
modification is produced whose composition agrees quite closely
enough with that of human milk, and which is found by experience
to be very well digested by infants.
As milk, after delivery, always contains a large number of
germs, and frequently some of these are disease germs, it is
necessary to heat the milk to such a temperature as to destroy the
germs. This process is called sterilization or Pasteurization ;
sterilization being the heating to such a temperature as to absolutely
kill all germs and other spores, and Pasteurization the heating to a
temperature which kills germs of the common infectious diseases
which are not spore-bearing, and the great majority of all germs
present. It is obvious that the above processes cannot be carried
out without considerable expense, and the provision of modified or
humanized milk has, until recently, only been practicable for the
richer classes.
It was at Fecamp, in France, some 12 years ago, that the first
attempt was made to provide humanized milk for the poor, and the
example was quickly followed in that country, so that now about
100 milk depots exist there. In August, 1899, the first English
depot was opened at St. Helen's, Lancashire, and in J une, 1902,
the first London depot at Battersea. The example is being slowly
followed, chiefly in ihe North of England and Scotland. Woolwich
is the fourth Municipal Milk Depot to be opened in the County of
London, but it has the honour of being the first to obtain Statutory
Powers for that purpose, the other London Milk Depots being
carried on without statutory sanction.
In 1905, Woolwich promoted a Bill, which, among other things,
authorised the Borough Council to establish, maintain, manage and
carry on a depot for the sale of sterilised and humanized milk for
infants under 2 years of age ; the depot to be subject to the medical
supervision of the Medical Officer of Health, and carried on in
accordance with regulations to be approved by the Local Government
Board. The Council have lost little time in using the powers
thus conferred upon them, and, as soon as the offices used by the
Council in Maxey Road were vacated on the opening of the new
Town Hall, a part of them was set apart for a Milk Depot.
The object of the Infants' Milk Depot is not to supplant natural
feeding, but to provide the only satisfactory substitute for this to
children who cannot be fed by their own mothers. Every effort
will be made to encourage breast-feeding and prevent the Depot