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
Catalogue details

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.

    5/100 page 3
    These biological substances will be dealt with in two groups— 1. The Ferments, and 2. The so-called “ Protective Substances.” In dealing witli tlie first group, for tlie sake of simplifying some of the difficulties, the literature and the original worlc carried out for the purpose of this report, will be taken together. Some of the work bad already been carried out in conjunction with Dr. Harden before the commencement of this report, but for various reasons, the publication has been delayed, and the work, although carried out in 1911 has only recently appeared. The amount of original work required lias been still further reduced owing to the recent appearance of several reliable papers (notably Rullmann’s(^^®)), since the work for this report was commenced. PART II. ON THE PRESENCE OF FERMENTS IN MILK. The history of the discovery of the ferments found to be present in milk, is intimately associated with the evolution of our present knowledge of the theory of ferment action. The mechanism of the activity of ferment has been worked at both in plants and animals. It has been shown that all living cells contain ferments, and that although some of these ferments are highly specialised, and found only in one particular class of either animal or vegetable kingdom, yet there are certain main types of ferments which are found almost everywhere in nature. At first, as the different reactions became known it was supposed that many of them were different manifestations of the same ferment action; but investigation of their thermal inactivation point, and of their distribution in nature showed that they were due to different ferments. This error has led to much confusion especially in the earlier literature, a confusion which has been further increased by the variety of terms which have been applied to the several reactions, owing very largely to the mechanism of their activity not having been understood. At the present time, however, the nomenclature of the various reactions is fairly well established, and there is no apparent advantage in using any other terms than those now most generally recognised. Throughout this report, therefore, in dealing with the various ferments, only one name will be used for each ferment- action, even although the authors quoted may, some of them, have used another name. The ferments which have been described as occurring in milk can be placed, roughly, under the following headings: — 1. Oxidising ferments. 2. Catalase. 3. Reducing ferments. 4. Proteolytic ferments. 5. Lipolytic ferments. 6. Lactase and glycolytic ferments. 7. Amylase. A 2 2540:-^
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3