Studies of Infant Feeding

While the addition of lime water to milk used as infant’s food has been common practice for many years, it has not been known just what changes the lime water produces, and as far 3s we know the subject has not been investigated from a purely chemical standpoint. The use of lime water in this connection has been based, first, upon the erroneous assumption that the acidity of COW’S milk is much higher than that of human milk’ and must be reduced before it can be used as a food for infants; and, second, upon the well known fact that lime water when added to milk in sufficient amount inhibits the curdling of the casein by rennin and hence, by deduction, will prevent the formation of casein curdsin the stomach, a source of much trouble in infant feeding. As the addition of any alkali to milk causes a precipitation of insoluble calcium phosphate, a fact well known to those familiar with the chemistry of milk, and in view of the results recently obtained by us with reference to the availability of dicalcium phosphate when present as a constituent of infants’ food, it seemed desirable that more definite information should be obtained concerning the chemical changes produced by the addition of lime water to milk. The technique employed in this investigation is the same as that used by Van Slyke and Bosworth2 in their studies of cow’s