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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    (B) On the Presence of a Salol-Splitting Ferment in Cows’ Milk and in Human Milk. The literature of the ferments in milk includes quite a number of papers dealing with the presence in milk of a ferment having the property of splitting salol into phenol and salicylic acid. The presence of this ferment is tested for by adding salol to milk, incubating, and then testing* for the presence of phenol and sali- cylic acid by the addition of ferric chloride. Nobecourt and MerkTen(^^^) (1901) first pointed out the pre- sence of this reaction, which was positive in human milk but neg'ative in cows’ milk. They also found that it was present in the serum of nursing women, but was absent in the urine. Spolverini (1901) and Luzzati and Biolchini (1902) also found this ferment present in the milk of women but not of cows. Moro (1902) showed that no reaction appears under 12 hours’ inc'ubation at 38^ C. Further; that the reaction is not aFected by boiling, which is against its being due to a ferment. The reaction was positive in all samples of human milk examined by him but always negative in cows’ milk. Desmoulieres(^^^) (1903) showed that certain salt solutions which are neutral to litmus and phenol-phthalein will split salol in precisely the same manner as the supposed ferment, and that the reaction occurs after boiling; he thinks it must be due to the alkaline phosphates in the milk. Miele and Willem(^^^) (1903) obtained evidence of the presence of salicylic acid in an alkaline solution of salol after incubation for 24 hours at 37^ C. They found that the reaction was given bj^ cows’ milk and by human milk both raw and boiled, by saliva and by pancreatin, if the reaction of the medium was faintly alkaline. Desmoulieres(^'^) (1903) again wrote pointing out that he had already dealt with the question of the reaction of the medium, and had also pointed out the probable sources of error in Nobecourt and Merklen’s work. Fried]ung and Hecht (1903) working with human milk found salolase present. Pozzi-Escot(’^^) (1903) showed that the lipase derived from castor oil beans which will attack fatty acid compounds of salicylic acid will not touch the phenol compounds. A. J. J. Yandevelde(^®®) (1907) examined the question of the presence of salolase in cows’ milk. He used acetone-iodoform as a disinfectant, and first showed that neither the reagent nor the reaction of the milk was able to produce a splitting of salol. He then took both raw and boiled cows’ milk and after adding* the disinfectant placed the flasks in the incubator. After 25 days he was able to demonstrate that the raw milk contained salicylic acid of a strength of about *0001 per cent., and he believed this action was due to a ferment present in the milk. Grimmer (1910) in his work upon the ferments present in the glands themselves, found salolase present in all the glands examined except in the case of a lactating cow.