STERILIZED MILK. A REPORT OF SOME EXPERIMENTS MADE TO DETERMINE THE PROPER MANNER OF HOII.ING AND PRESERVING MILK FOR THE USE OF INFANTS.* BY AUGUSTUS CAILLE, M.D., NEW YORK, VISITING PHYSICIAN TO THE GERMAN HOSPITAL AND TO THE GERMAN DISPENSARY (DISEASES OF children). In Nos. 15 and 16 of the Miinchner Medizinische IVochenschrift (1886), Dr. Soxhlet reports his experience in preparing and feeding sterilized milk, and describes an apparatus by means of which the procedure can be practi- cally carried out in every household. This communication does not seem to have attracted attention on this side of the Atlantic, for I have never heard it spoken of, and have never seen a press notice of the subject in any of our journals. During my vacation last summer I met at Wurzburg, Bavaria, a very reputable colleague who is particularly interested in Padiatrics, and, in the course of conversation, he made mention of sterilized milk, expressed his surprise that little attention was paid to this matter in the United States, and spoke very highly from personal experience of Soxhlet’s apparatus. The gentleman was kind enough to introduce me to the parents of two of his little patients who were fed on sterilized milk, and I ascertained, by directly questioning the mothers, that they had no difficulty whatsoever in manipulating the milk according to directions. Subsequently I met at Carlsbad. Bohemia, another colleague, who con- firmed the statements of my friend at Wurzburg, and who assured me that he frequently ordered the sterilizing apparatus in his practice. These state- ments induced me to import a set of Soxhlet’s utensils, with a view of care- fully investigating the subject from a practical standpoint. Before giving the results of my observations I will refer briefly to the theoretical part of our subject. The investigations of Lister show that the milk in the cow’s udder is aseptic, and the same is true of nnlk within the human female breast, according to Escherich. Soxhlet, in his article, says: “ During the process of milking, particles of manure and other forms of dirt get into the milk, and, during transporta- tion and general handling, fermentation sets in, so that much of our milk is really unfit for consumption before it gets into the hands of the consumer— i.