Milk Of Women Research Articles

Iodine Content of Human Skim Milk from Goitrous and Non-goitrous Regions

Published figures for the iodine content of cow's and women's milk are not consistent. The foreign investigators report for cow's milk, 1γ-3γ% and for human milk after the fifth lactation day 2γ-4γ%. American investigators find that the percentage in cow's skim milk, calculated on the dry basis, may vary between 14.0γ and 130.0γ%. This investigation includes a study of the iodine content of the milk from mothers in Detroit, a goitrous region, and from mothers in Boston, a non-goitrous region. The mothers were normal and showed no signs of thyroid hyperplasia. The value of iodine was determined in the milk of mothers at varying intervals during the mature lactation period. The calcium and inorganic soluble phosphates were also determined and compared with the fluctuations found for iodine. The milk was obtained through the courtesy of the Detroit Mother's Milk Bureau and The Directory for Mother's Milk, Boston. Nine cases were studied from the former and 10 cases from the latter. Micro methods were used for the determination of calcium, inorganic soluble phosphates, and iodine. Samples of one ounce were received and a 10 cc. portion of this was needed for the micro-iodine estimation, as described by the author.3, 4 The calcium and inorganic soluble phosphates were determined on the trichloracetic acid filtrates from 2 cc. of skimmed milk. Calcium was estimated by the method of Clark, the inorganic soluble phosphates by the method of Benedict and Theis. The results represent analyses of 295 samples of milk. The average iodine content of human skim milk may vary among women and at different times during the lactation period from 6.0γ to 23.0γ%. The average is 12.4y. There is a marked variation in individuals.

HUMAN MILK STUDIES

Variations in the percentage composition of human milk are known to occur during the twenty-four hour day, but the desultory procedures followed in sampling the milk leave us without precise knowledge of the extent and nature of these fluctuations and their physiologic and clinical significance. Talbot1suggested that the most characteristic picture of the composition of a milk can be ascertained from a sample taken at 9 or 10 in the morning. However, reports of wide fluctuations of milk fat at different nursings suggested that an entire day's production of milk should be collected in order to gain definite information on its characteristic percentage composition.2 Roberton3aptly remarked that Woman's milk varies in quality more than any other milk—a fact one might expecta priorifrom the endless variety and from the mode of living and circumstances of women. In view of the inconstancy in composition of

The Question of the Elimination of Foreign Protein (Egg-White) in Woman's Milk

Summary Evidence of the elimination in the breast milk of food proteins ingested by lactating women, has been clinical. Stuart's inability to confirm Shannon's experiments and conclusions casts grave doubt upon their validity. Walzer's egg absorption work makes it possible to determine when the lactating mother has unaltered egg protein in her blood stream. This constitutes a valuable guide as to the time to collect the breast milk for the study of its egg content. A human anti-egg serum, such as serum F, once found, is available for a long time, and offers considerable latitude to the experimenter. Among receptive skins moderate differences in reactivity are found. A specific test of great delicacy for egg-white is offered by the site in a reactive skin sensitized by human anti-egg serum of high reagin content. Serum F sites may react to one part of egg-white in ten billion parts of salt solution or breast milk whey. A method for the preparation of concentrated breast milk whey for testing is presented, although its concentration may not be of great importance. The concentrated whey of breast milk obtained after raw egg ingestion, on an empty stomach and without other food, from three of eight women, gave the specific reaction for egg-white greater than the control, in sensitized sites in two normal recipients for each whey. Four recipients were utilized for the tests. By comparison of the skin reactions obtained with the breast milk whey, with those of known dilutions of egg-white, it is estimated that the concentration of egg-white in one of them was one part in a million, and in each of the others one part of egg-white in a billion parts. An unsuccessful attempt was made to sensitize a guinea pig passively to egg-white with 2.5 cc. of serum F intraperitoneally, as shown by the uterine strip method of Dale.

Salt Content of Woman's Milk in some cases in which its use was not beneficial

Salt Content of Woman's Milk in some cases in which its use was not beneficial

The Protein and Non-Protein Fractions of some samples of Woman's Milk

The Protein and Non-Protein Fractions of some samples of Woman's Milk

On gastric secretion in infants and older children. Lesné, Coffin, Zizine and Picquard (Bul. de la Soc. de Ped. de Paris, 1927, no. 6-7)

As a result of a number of studies of gastric secretion in children, the authors find it to be different in healthy and sick infants and in older children. In both breastfed and formula-fed infants, the absence of HCl in the gastric juice during digestion and its presence in the stomach only on an empty stomach are noted. Total acidity in healthy infants when fed with woman's milk averages 0.50 and with cow's milk ranges from 1.0 to 1.80 (per liter of gastric juice).

A STUDY OF THE ANTIRACHITIC FACTOR IN HUMAN AND IN COW'S MILK

Rickets is a universal disorder. It occurs with by far the greatest frequency among infants and young children in the temperate zones, but no country seems to be spared and no climate to confer absolute immunity. In considering and in studying this widespread disorder, one should always bear in mind that milk is the universal food of infants; whatever may be the differences as to detail, the basic diet of every infant is either woman's milk or that of some animal. It is therefore of prime importance, in studying the etiology of rickets, to have as complete an understanding as possible of the relation of woman's and of cow's milk and their constituents to the development and prevention of rickets. Strangely enough, no experimental study has been undertaken of human milk in its bearing on rickets, so that it seemed worth while to investigate this problem, making use of the

How much milk can a nursing woman give?

Normally a woman's maximum daily milk production is determined to be 3 liters. Kollmann, however, observed a 23-year-old woman giving birth for the second time, who produced about 4 liters daily for 51 weeks.

On the contagiousness of syphilitic women's milk

The authors undertook a series of studies, wishing, first, to determine whether specific antibodies and spirochaetes pass into milk, and second, trying to prove the infectivity of milk by inoculating it into animals.

Advances in the therapy of alimentary diseases in infants. Pogorschelsky (Vr. Delo, 1926, No. 17—18)

Proceeding from the fact that the modern nutritious mixtures recommended for diarrheal diseases, as protein milk, buttermilk, Adam's "ditic milk," are poor in fats, and that the ratio of nutrients in them differs considerably from the ratio available in women's milk, the author proposes a mixture he calls "protein milk dressing" (protein milk with 4% flour, 4% sugar and 3% butter, prepared according to the method of Czerny-Kelinshmidt'a).

The experience of feeding children with Moro butter-flour mixture

In the field of artificial feeding of children both the usual methods of milk dilution and various attempts to treat cow's milk in order to bring its composition closer to that of the woman's milk, or to make it more digestible, have never produced a result close to that of mother's breast feeding. The imperfection of artificial feeding has always been the cause of the search in this field, why every new proposal in dietetics attracts great attention.

Protein therapy of some surgical diseases. Stradyn (V. Khir. i Pogr. Obl., vol. II)

The author used parenteral injection of women's milk (milk was boiled for 10' and injected warm intramuscularly or subcutaneously every 2-4 days, 4-5 times on average, in doses of -2 q cent. in children, 1-3 q cent. in adults, then 3 - 4, rarely up to 5 q cent.) in 33 cases of various surgical diseases.

A CHEMICAL STUDY OF WOMAN'S MILK, ESPECIALLY ITS INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS

No extended review of the literature on the chemistry of woman's milk will be attempted in this paper. The reader is referred for this to a résumé by Nothmann¹in 1912 and another by Talbot²in 1914. Quite large series of analyses have been made by many observers in which only a determination of the organic constituents and the total ash of milk was aimed at. Among the most important publications are those of Leeds,³Meigs⁴and Adriance⁵in this country and those of Pfeiffer⁶and Schlossman⁷in Germany. The fat and protein content of woman's milk are now pretty definitely agreed on. The methods followed by many chemists in the sugar determination, as we shall see later, are open to criticism; and even in the total ash estimation, errors have been made owing to faulty methods. Considering how much work has been

FIBRIN FERMENT IN MILK.

Studies with the various serums and anti-serums have led to the demonstration that milk, human and otherwise, generally contains fibrin ferment. This fact is readily demonstrated by adding a drop or so of milk to hydrocele fluid, which contains fibrinogen but no fibrin ferment, and coagulation results. We owe this observation to Moro and Hamburger¹and Bernheim-Kauer.²Hydrocele fluid may lose the property of coagulating after standing for some days and after heating for thirty minutes to 55-56 C. The ferments in various milks do not react alike to heating, that in cow's milk not being affected by so low temperatures as the ferment in woman's milk. Bernheim-Kauer sought to obtain an antibody for the fibrin ferment in human milk by repeated injections of rabbits with milk, and with success. By suitable experiments with this anti-serum he shows that the ferment in cow's milk is not identic with

Condensed Milk

THE importance of milk as an article of diet is so great that anything offered as a substitute for it, or that renders it more available as food, demands attention. The composition of cow's milk is so nearly like woman's milk that the addition of a little water and sugar may be said to convert the one into the other; hence the practice of giving cow's milk to young children, and making it a substantial article of their diet long after they have cut their teeth and are able to masticate bread and meat. No inconsiderable quantity of milk is also consumed by adults, and its nutritive effect is not exceeded by any article of diet, as it contains all the constituents that are necessary to the perfect nutrition of the human body.