Report to the Local Government Board upon the "biological properties" of milk, both of the human species, and of cows, considered in special relation to the feeding of infants / by Janet E. Lane-Claypon.

  • Janet Lane-Claypon
Date:
1913
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report to the Local Government Board upon the "biological properties" of milk, both of the human species, and of cows, considered in special relation to the feeding of infants / by Janet E. Lane-Claypon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that tlie body causiiio’ the F.M.B. reaction will not bear dilution, it may also be that the dilution of tiie control of cows’ milk and water is showing* slight inhibition. As regards tlie distribution of the reducing substance they found that the main part goes up with the cream, and that there is no parallelism between the fat content and the amount of the ferment. Tliere may be much fat and little reducing power, and vice versa. The strippings have the highest reducing power, and the authors agree with Rdmer and Sanies that the reduction of Schardinger’s reagent is due to the activity of the gland, and is brouglit about by a pre-formed enzyme. They showed that the reaction is not influenced by the sucking of the calf, and that different teats yield milk of different reducing power. The reaction is the same whether the milk be collected by milking tube or by milking in the ordinary way, and is not influenced by small numbers of bacteria; an absolutely sterile sample of milk which had never been contaminated by bacteria gave a quicker reduction time than milk containing 46 bacteria per cc. and similar numbers. Working with milk from diseased udders the authors found that there was much variation in the quantity of the ferment, which varied with the degree of inflammation; if the inflamma- tion was severe the reaction was generally either delayed or absent. In connection with the question of the activity of the gland, the work of Grimmer(^°) (1910) may be mentioned. This observer took glands of cows and of other animals and extracted them with glycerine both before and after grinding with quartz. The glycerine extracts contained no substance capable of reduc- ing either M.B. or F.M.B. Too much stress, however, should not be laid upon this fact since it is possible that the substance is not extracted by glycerine, or it may be that the ferment is only produced during active metabolism. Eullmann (1911) published two papers upon the mechanism of the Schardinger reaction, and upon the question of its presence in sterile milk. He showed that cultures of certain bacteria in sterilised milk will give reduction of both M.B. and F.M.B. and that formic acid could replace formaldehyde in the production of the F.M.B. reaction. In a large number of experiments he showed that if lactose 120 cc. of a 5 per cent, solution) and NaOH (2 mg.) be added to either boiled or sterilised milk that great decrease can be obtained in the reduction time both of M.B. and of F.M.B. The formic acid reagent is also reduced but after a longer time. Lactose alone in watery solution will not reduce F.M.B., but the addition of ammonia, calcium or sodium phos])hate to a mixture of lactose and soda brings about a great acceleration in the rate of the reduction, as does also a rise of temperature up to 950 C. Eullmann also collected milk with a milking tube and obtained many samples of milk which were completely sterile, both broth cultures and agar plates showing no growth. In the sterile C 2 25403