Cow’s milk differs from human milk in that it contains nearly three times as much casein, but only two thirds as much fat and three fourths as much sugar.  Cow’s milk is usually slightly acid, while human milk is alkaline.  The casein of cow’s milk forms large, hard curds, while that of breast milk forms fine, soft curds.  These facts make it important that some modification be made in cow’s milk to render it acceptable to the feeble stomach of an infant.  Cases are rare where it is safe to feed a child under nine months of age on pure, undiluted cow’s milk.  A common method of preparing cow’s milk so as to make it suitable for infant feeding, is to dilute it with pure water, using at first only one third or one fourth milk, the proportion of milk being gradually increased as the child’s stomach becomes accustomed to the food and able to bear it, until at the age of four months the child should be taking equal parts of milk and water.  When sterilized milk is to be thus diluted, the water should be first boiled or added before sterilizing.  A small amount of fine white sugar, or what is better, milk sugar, should be added to the diluted milk.  Barley water, and thin, well-boiled, and carefully strained oatmeal gruel thoroughly blended with the milk are also used for this purpose.  A food which approximates more nearly the constituents of mother’s milk may be prepared as follows:—­

ARTIFICIAL HUMAN MILK NO. 1.—­Blend one fourth pint of fresh, sweet cream and three fourths of a pint of warm water.  Add one half ounce of milk sugar and from two to ten ounces of milk, according to the age of the infant and its digestive capacity.

ARTIFICIAL HUMAN MILK NO. 2.—­Meigs’s formula:  Take two tablespoonfuls of cream of medium quality, one tablespoonful of milk, two of lime water, and three of water to which sugar of milk has been added in the proportion of seventeen and three fourths drams to the pint.  This saccharine solution must be prepared fresh every day or two and kept in a cool place.  A child may be allowed from half a pint to three pints of this mixture, according to age.

ARTIFICIAL HUMAN MILK NO. 3.—­Prepare a barley water by adding one pint boiling water to a pint of best pearl barley.  Allow it to cool, and strain.  Mix together one third of a pint of this barley water, two thirds of a pint of fresh, pure milk, and a teaspoonful of milk sugar.—­Medical News.

Peptonized milk, a formula for the preparation of which may be found on page 426, is also valuable as food for infants, especially for those of weak digestion.

MUCILAGINOUS FOOD EXCELLENT IN GASTRO-ENTERITIS.—­Wheat, one tablespoonful; oatmeal, one half tablespoonful; barley, one half tablespoonful; water, one quart.  Boil to one pint, strain, and sweeten.—­Dietetic Gazette.

PREPARED FOODS FOR INFANTS.—­Of prepared infant foods we can recommend that manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., as thoroughly reliable.  There are hundreds of prepared infant foods in the market, but most of them are practically worthless in point of food value, being often largely composed of starch, a substance which the immature digestive organs of a young child are incapable of digesting.  Hundreds of infants are yearly starved to death upon such foods.