The Experimental Feeding of Dried Breast Milk

In a previous communication (1) an experimental method for drying breast milk by a modification of the Just-Hatmaker roller process was presented. It had long been felt that could human milk be preserved in some way another step forward towards the solution of the nutritional problems of infancy would be provided (2). It was found that the drying of the milk was entirely practicable and a powder could be obtained which was completely dehydrated and showed no appreciable change in its chemical composition. The following feeding experiments were undertaken to find out how much of the antiscorbutic value of the milk would be lost by drying and by ageing. The experimental data which are herewith presented are based on the feeding of young, growing guinea pigs of approximately 250 gm. weight with a standard diet which uniformly produces scurvy in 15 to 20 days, and death in 18 to 25 days. It is the diet recommended by Givens and Cohen (3), Hess (4), and other investigators of these nutritional problems. It consists of a soy bean flour (autoclaved at 20 pounds for 1 hour) to which are added 3 per cent each of dried brewer’s yeast, sodium chloride, and calcium lactate. 4 per cent of filter paper is added to give bulk, and the fat-soluble vitamin is supplied by milk, either raw or in the powdered form. To the basal diet varying quantities of breast milk were added to estimate its antiscorbutic value. The milk was supplied raw or dried. One series included milk which had been freshly dried and another, dried milk which had been kept for 2 years. The results are incorporated in Charts 1 to 4. The experiments were