The Influence of Feeding on Certain Acids in the Feces of Infants

Abstract

From the time Pasteur 1 showed that volatile fatty acids could be the products of fermentation, the idea of relating them to intestinal peristalsis has interested medical men.2 To pediatricians, however, these acids first assumed real importance during the years just preceding the Great War. At this time the high mortality of artificially fed children in the congested districts was a perplexing problem. Czerny sponsored the idea that volatile fatty acids developed by bacterial contamination of cow's milk were the etiologic factor. Against him were Finkelstein,