To the efforts of Dr. Ballot, of Rotterdam, is due the knowledge we now possess of the value of buttermilk as a food for infants. The relative composition of buttermilk and mother's-milk is given in the following table:

Constituents

Buttermilk.

Mother's milk.
 

43·8

23·6

2·0

5·6

921·75

78·25

2·75

34·3

Milk-sugar.........................................

48·2
 

23·3

Salts..............................................

2·3

Water..............................................

883·6
 

116·4
 

nil.
   

It is probably in consequence of the presence of lactic acid, as Dr. Ballot suggests, that buttermilk is easily digested. His manner of preparing the food for infants is as follows: To a pint of buttermilk is added a spoonful of wheat-flour. This is boiled a few minutes. The pap must be thin. To this quantity of buttermilk, after it is boiled, is added half a drachm of sugar. It should have a sweet taste.

In the beginning some teaspoonfuls are given to habituate the infant to the smell and taste, but as soon as possible it should be administered in a nursing-bottle. The temperature should be about 96° Fahr. When the infant acquires a taste for the preparation, it may be given ad libitum twice a day.

Buttermilk-cure may be substituted for the milk-cure in cases of stomach disease, in which the former has proved so successful, and in cases of albuminuria and diabetes. In consequence of the large proportion of lactic acid which it contains, buttermilk is more especially indicated in diabetes.