OUR BABIES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 14

OUR BA BIES.

(Br Qxgbu.)

("Weekly Press and Referee.") 3o many enquiries hare reached us lately for the articles published at the beginning of Inst year on Dried Milk and Glaxo that the (subject must be oi vital interest in many quarters. Some of our correspondents have suggested that wo should reprint them at once. As it is of tho utmost importance that babies, if artificially fed, should hare their iood properly projwrtioned and approximated as closely as possible to mother's milk, we are printing tho articles again. DRIED MILK. The following; letter has been received from tho proprietors of Glaxo concerning tho use oi' "'dried milk" in baby-feeding, and I am glad to publish it verbatim, although the views expressed are not in accord with tho teachings of tho Society for the Health of Women and Children:— LETTER CONCERNING GLAXO. "Wellington January 16th, 1911 To "Hygeia." Dear Madam, —I should be very pleased if you could make an appointment to meet mc, either at my office or elsewhere. I havo been watching your Articles on Baby Food for some time with a considerable amount of interest. ■ .. I have been been in personal communication with Dre. Hutchiuson and Still in London, and think I know something about milk. * You are aware that wo are making dried milk in largo quantities, but I gather from your article of January 14th that you have not had "Glaxo" brought under your notice. This is a variation of the milk, and probably if I use tho word "humanised" as yon havo used it, you will understand that on analysis it, (Glaxo) would civo almost the same composition as human milk. Apart from this question, tho point that interested mo most wae your statement —"The 'life' has been heated out of them." (That is out of dried or otherwise Condensed Milk) Now, this is a point that Dr. Sommerville, of King's _ College, London, studied for over mx months, and he was unablo to make this statement. I am sure he, an well as myself, .would be glad to have your authority for the above statement. Have yon ever, after liquefying the Dried Milk, tried to use roanet with it? I would also be pleased to know what authority yon havo for saying that tho living principles are lacking in the Dried Milk. If you could give mo half an hour, and see the various reports of tho Board of Health, Finsbury, and many others from leading, baby doctors in England. I think I could convince yon that the preparation of "Glaxo" is manufactured absolutely to fill all tho requirements you deeire.

I also notice that yoa make use of the words —"the baby digested

completely-" Well, I would like to point out that tha highest authorities that we consulted, and under whom wo aro acting, have pointed out to us that fats are not digested in the ordinary sense but are absorbed. That is why "Glaxo" is a much better preparation, • and much easier of digestion, than any "humanised" milk. The character of tho Cream has beeji changed into a fat, and the proteids are absolutely soluble and digestible. This latter fact has been proved in tho leading London hospital, both on babies and also in an artificial stomach.

"We could boast that there is no re-

eidue to be found in using Dried Milk as there would be in using even humanised milk. The difficulty of the digestion of the proteids is absolutely overcome.

,1 would like to have yoirr assistance in placing this article moro firmly on the market in New Zealand. "Wβ have not bothered with it so far here. "Wo are using all our efforts in Great Britain, where the population is greater. I hope this letter has not wearied you, but I have a good deal moro to say, and I would like an opportunity of saying it. BEPLY BY "HYGEIA." In the second paragraph of our ©orTespondent's letter he says that his firm makes Dried Milk on a large scale, that he has been in "personal communication with Dra. Hutchinson and Still in London," and that he thinks he "knowe something about milk.' . Here and in the rest of the letter is conveyed the confident assertion not only of an extensive knowledgo with regard to milk in general, but.also the conviction of the writer that more weight and authority should be attached to his ideas on this subject than to -what has been said regarding the use in infant feeding of dried and otherwise condensed milks in Our Babies column —from which ho differs, ©specially regarding the claims of the particular Dried Milk which his firm manufactures—viz., Glaxo.

The citation of the names of Drs. Hutchinson and Still, of London (apparently again referred to in paragraph seven as "the highest authorities that we consulted, and tinder "whom we are acting") is clearly intended to convey the impression that these well-known physicians ' axo with the makers of Glaxo, and at variance with wJiat lias appeared in this column. In roality, as I shall show presently, the reverse is the case.

But, even if two eminent,, doctors did range themselves against the facts and laws of Nature and the findings of science, tho trnth would be in no way affected thereby. It is always a mistake to cloud a simple issito'.by the introduction of misleading or irrelevant matter tending to confuse rather than throw light on. points under consideration. As Professor Stanley Jevons says in his book on Logic (when dealing with the subject of Fallacious Arguments) —"Whoever uses what is known as argumentum ad hominem (that is, an argument which rests not upon 'the merits of tho .case, but tho character or position of those engaged in it) commits this fallacy."

However, as I have ventured to hint, Drs. Hutchinson and. Still are not in accord with the proprietors of Glaxo. In his well-known text-book, "Food and the Principles of Dietetics," page 450, Dr. Hntchinson gives a table showing the chemical composition of thp Humanised Milk" snppliod by tho Aylesbury Dairy Co., of London, a* compared with Nature's own standard —viz., the milk of the human mother I add three columns showing respective,y ~ (l) thc composition of "humanised milk/ , prepared in accordance with the recipes given by the Society for the Health of Women and Children; (2) tho composition of Glaxo as eiven on page 30 of the "Glaxo Baby Book ; and (3) cow'e milk. Table showing average composition of various milks:— a 3 S - K w *3 X 2 ■3e-fo-g 55 •« J5 * £.fr, £% S o >.S O." sj >» = -=o-2 * ~, - -«i < X H'3 ■ r" 5 , Protejd .. 1.3 2.2 IS 1.3 to 1.4 3 -To Fali •• -4 3.6 3.5 3.5 u>4 >\ H Sngarofililk 4.7 5.2 6.5 6 to* J? The percentage of proteid in human nsflk given in the above table is some--hat> higher than the fibres arrived at by very extensive analysis of mother's milk made dunno- the last ten years. Thus the average is gi yen ay Protessor Raudmtz, of Prague as commonly varying from 1.1 to 1 5* ncr ?ent., or, say, an average of 13 r pent.--m other words, from a third to half of the proportion f olUld • Glaxo. ■

Glaxo is therefore not, properly speaking, a "humanised" miik. Oil comparing the GLuxo column with thecow's milk column, it v;i\\ be at once realised that tho trace of sugar ot milk and cream added by tho manufacturers does uot cause 'the composition of this particular form of Dried Milk to vary appreciably from ordinary unmodified dried cow's milk. Commenting on the Ayle.sbury Co.'s Humanised Milk, Dr. Uutchinson says: "The first contains too little proteid, and tho second rather much. No. 1 is intended for youug and delicate infants, No. 2 for those who »re older and stronger. AYe saw, however, that human miik does not tend to get richer in protcul as lactation proceeds, and for that reason the preparation of a stronger milk for older infants is not physiologically sound."

Seeing that Dr. Hutchinson pronounces it "physiologically unsound" to giro a baby % per cent, of proteid (on the ground that 2 per cent, is too much), how can ho possibly approve of Glaxo, which shows on analyses 3 per cent. ? OVER-TAXING BABY'S KIDNEYS. The essential purpose and work of the kidneys i« to extract from tho blood, and excrete, the waste products resulting from the proteid materials taken into tho body. Nature has designed these organs of the right size and power to carry out this important duty, thus ridding the system of what know to be the most poisonous of all the effete substances poured into the circulation. But, perfect as th& kidneys arc for the performance of their allotted task, Nature has not fitted them for doing day after day two or three times as much work n» she intends them to fulfil. Especially does Nature resent the overworking of immature organs, at the age appointed for their most rapid growth and devlopnrent. Such transgressions of her laws, whether witting or unwitting, are always followed by punishment sooner or later —there is an inevitable Nemesis ahead. Tho tiny, delicate kidneys of babies are not tit subjects for over-pressure.

DON'T MONKEY WITH NATURE. One of the first injunctions of Physiology is that "vvltioh warns us against the overworking of living structures in the course of building, because euch overwork gravely interferes with development — over-taxed baby-organs tend to bo stunted later on. We cannot "monkey. -with Nature" with impunity. Slio may not exact during childhood any apparent penalty for a baby's unconscious disobedience to her laws, but the future man or "woman whoso kidneys are rendered specially liable to fail prematurely before or during middle life will not find much comfort in the complacent parental remark :—"Well, you grew up all right, anyway. The wrong food wo gave you during infancy didn't seem to do any harm at the time, so far as we could see—in fact, you took the.first prize at a baby show."

The pride of having been a prisso baby, judged merely from the outside, is not much compensation for having a wrong inside later on in life —for being doomed, say, to Bright's disease.

DYSPEPSIA AND CONSTIPATION.

' I have mentionod pothLog as to the Iharni found to result in practice from jabuse of tho Digestive Organs and the isystern generally through the giving of an ©xcess of proteid material during infancy. The evidence on that point is startling and overwhelming, but it must stand over until next week.