SYNTHETIC VITAMINS.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 19391, 17 August 1928, Page 2

SYNTHETIC VITAMINS.

A DOCTOR'S WARNING. FRESH FOOD ALL-IMPORTANT. (raoM oub own coebespondent.) LONDON, July 13. Dr. H. C. Cbrry Mann, in a paper on "The Value of Dairy Products in the Diet During the School Age," at the Dairy Congress, delivered a warning against the promiscuous use of pills containing synthetic vitamin D,, or a. course of artificial sunshine. Dr. Mann carried out the recent series of diet experiments on schoolboys in which New Zealand butter played an important part.

"There is a tendency among the general public," he said, "to think that a course of treatment by artificial sunshine or a bottle of pills containing synthetic vitamin D in concentrated form, will cover a multitude of sins in a child's badly-chosen diet, or cure without delay an active case of rickets. "To-day, we know nothing of the stability of these bottled vitamin concentrates under varying conditions of weather, light, and time. Some of them, 1 am convinced, are easily decomposed, and one of the most extensively advertised vitamin preparations has, on occasions, been singularly futile in. my hands. I would most strongly advise you—when you require vitamin, calcium, and fat for a growing child—to pin your faith to the uses of fresh food, prepared and distributed under modern conditions of cleanliness and efficiency, whether it be in the form of milk, cream, butter, or cod liver oil. "It has sometimes been supposed that if the boy in the elementary school of a poor industrial district were provided with playing fields, organised games, and physical drill, he would make a progress in physique corresponding to that of his more fortunate contemporaries in the public schools. That is an impossibility under present conditions. The industrial diets do provide for basal metabolism, but growth and activity can only proceed under limited conditions, because the diets are poor in quality and low in caloric value. If under such conditions muscular activities are increased, then growth must suffer, for the modern child is usually a live wire during adolescence. To organise strenuous games and physical training for a badly-fed child is a certain way to obtain' failure in nutrition, especially during the years of puberty, for the full development of all the potential qualities present at birth can be obtained only if a really satisfactory diet is made an essential durine the years of the school age."

Bay-Treated Milk. It was interesting to' hear from Dr. Wilhelm Hoffman, of Vienna, of the results of tests made with milk treated with ultra-violet rays. Dr. Hoffman said that in experiments at the University Children's Clinic, Vienna, it was found that rats fed on ricket-pro-ducing food, with an addition of eight cubic centimetres of ray-treated milk, showed, after three weeks, no signs of rickets as .distinct from the control animals which received ricket-produc-ing food plus eight cubic cms. of milk not ray-treated. Further experiments showed that animals suffering from rickets became quite healthy after heing fed for four weeks with raytreated milk (six cubic cms. per day), while animals fed on milk non-ray-treated either died or did not quite recover.

"Milk is specially suitable for use as a cure of, and preventive against rickets and as a carrier of vitamins, as it is a food which is both cheap and easily digested and can, therefore, be taken in sufficient quantities by everyone." said Dr. Hoffman. "From a prophylactic point of view, the sale of a cheap activated milk to the masses is even more important than the direct treatment of the human body with artificial sunlight, since this treatment cannot be as universal as ths consumption of an activated milk. It is a fact that in this age of artificial sunlight and cod liver oil, 60 per cent, of the children in the large towns aro suffering from rickets. At the present time tests were being made with children, and the latest in-

formation was that there had been an increase in the phosphorus and calcium reflection in the blood of the patient and also considerable lime deposits in the X-ray photograph. To prove that vitamin A was not destroyed in the ray-treated milk a number of guinea pige were fed on SO cubic cms. of raytreated milk and flaked oats daily. Although the latter food did not contain vitamin A, the animals treated showed no signs of developing the deficiency disease which occurred if vitamin A was lacking.

Stairs, those great enemies of the human race, have just been soundly defeated in their principal stronghold. A human being has raced cheerfully to the tor* of the Woolwortb Building in New York. It is women who suffer most from the abundance of stairs in the world, and it was, very fittingly a woman who reached in the "record' time of 13 minutes the 57th storey. Several men have at different times covered the track in as good time as his, but none has been so buoyant as was this woman, for she at once offered to sing an operatic air.

JUVENILE DIET. WROxNGFUL FEEDING OF CHILDREN. VALUE OF MILK. (FROM 008, OWN COaitESPO?(DEST.) LONDON, July 13. Professor H. E. Kenwood, C.M.G., M.8., F.E.S.E., an eminent food authority, referred to the perils of wrongful feeding in a paper read, at the World's Dairy Congress. "The daily food oj very many chilr dren," he said, "consists of white bread, with jam or margarine and potatoes. It is not surprising therefore, that rickets is so prevalent; that one out of every three or four children en, tering school is physically defective;

and tba.t 2Q per cgiit, of pur children in industrial areas are mal-nourished, and their consequent backwardness in education is equivalent to the loss of many months of school life." The food consumed by many was deficient in certain factor's, including the vitamins, calcium, and phosphorus, essential for healthy growth and nutrition. Such defects could be remedied by the inclusion of milk and green vegetables in the diet. Fresh vegetable.?! to supplement milk usefully should be oaten' jn i;h@ raw state, but as the§? sould ngt be obtained, ail tbj year round, it was betfesr to concentrate, theijr 4itentietn on fresh milk, which wa§ alt ways availably asd would-in itself gu£ flee.

Toughing; en the espejrynentß ooaauct-i fid by 'ik-'ikftf M§B9 es f»fl ißgpiy Qf a,'daily pint oj 9?Uk to. the b9y§"o? a model settleg}gtit to augment their usual diet, W&ejaby their atfera.ge yearly increase in weight and height was subs Btantially inereas|4, professor Kenwood, stated that several forms of extra cak priga had been given, but none pi them furnished the results geeuyed by giving as an additional item of feed each day a pint of fresh cow's milk recently pasteurised. In Great Britain alone less milk per head of population was consumed than in most ether ciyiliged countries, By se--BU*Jflg th every child needing ft, a ssiaii supply o$ *?**)*■ ■«!& daily a * Br y *ieh rewar4 was to be gained. Surely i* PhSßld/ fee 816 9f $9. fflftin ajnjg Pf all local an# health autfefmtifis. ta teajfc the pubjio fepw best to feel themselves aSd thei? children. &$ the lowest pebble iapst. Dealing with measures to make milk supplies "safe, the Bppaker said that the recognition of the value of pasteurisation, (previous heating) of milk to the public and the trade was growing, and. was already widespread, The practical tests applied so extensively in this and. other countries had always proved the Wisdom of previously heating cows' milk. Improve* qnaW*y «f M*lfc A stpifeing tribute. tQ the value of the pas'teuriaatiw of milk, the wstein adopted by the leading distributing firms in London, and other great cities, was paid by Sir John HobertSQßi O,M.Q„ Professor of PuMiq I«»lth at Birmingham Upiveraity, In the course of a pape* en "MiW and the Public Stealth from the Stand--5" oiiit of Communicable Disease, ' Sir php said that frpm tb§ e.ngrmoug liter, ature dealing with milk production,, two factors: einerge,d;.(a,) great improve-, ment bad taken place in the yield and "Quality" of milk, ajid (b) milk isftow a mucMavgu.r<s article and yepy seldom, conveys infection. . -«As an old health; pffieer/' be mtinned, "J haye bee? surprised at the few instances which new occur of PIUJj infection compared with what We ÜB eq ta have to. investigate twenty py mop Ti'Wß"ftßQ, At one fiinje. it used tp bf the custom in a well-managed Health Department to, keep a register of ffiilkveudors, in. which every case of certain infections wis entered unc(er th§ Blilfevendor's. pame. In reeent years this recor-d has prevad to b$ valueless, b©> mms milk djd/ not convey infection, m& m a result the register was abaa* doned,' 1 Si? John attributed these results tg the action of two different grpups qf people, namely, the producers and the aigtrifeutors. for years, he said, b# had been unable, to trace a single, c,a§e ©| infection ta the mßk supply af a eity population §# sbent one' sUltea people. * As an essßfflßle el the r^ue' tipn of jofeotipn r»lfs. he mentioned that we had now gpt rid of spidemjc diarrhea by teaching the mothers pj &§l»nd h&w t« aanolfi ailfe alter thsy hai Fgcejved it from the toysaHi th§rfhy preventing house dirt from gaining aeeepg, Be admitted, however, that the milk trade., must ajwgys have before them the possibility of infection being cjgnveyeg through the me3i«B of muk.

iSJr John said that while he was prepared to give the public, if tHey cJe?iF- - 9d it, so*eftlJed. raw mill? produced under ttje cleanest conditions, and distributed by the. k?t methods, as 8 hjaltli officer whose business, it was to prevent disease, he advised that clean milk should be pasteurised, cooled, ancj bottled for sale. There need be but two .grades, of milk, "certified" and "pasteurised."

PHILLIPSTOWN KINDERGARTEN. The usual monthly meeting, of the PhillipstQwn Iree Kindergarten was held on Tuesday, when Mrs Griffiths presided. There were, present: Mesdameg leaver, Dunbier, Weodham, and Miss Thomas. Apologies were received from Mesdames Francis, Wyatt, and J. A. IJmpsan. It was decided to hold a combined committee meeting o» Monday evening nest, to discuss arrangements for tbe coming fete in November, and to aloet committees. A social and dance are to be held at the school next week end a "hard-up" evening social has been arranged by the Parents' Committee for the following week. Miss Suckling reported a good attendance during the month. The nuroi ber on the roll had increased to 70, highest attendance 65, lowest 16, average 55. Subscriptions for the month amounted to £4 6a Wd. During the month visitors to the kindergarten were: Misa. Hawdon, teacher from tbe mentally defectives' school in Sydney, and Mrs Koe, who intendfe shortly to open a kindergarten at Geraldine. Both were very much impressed by the children's work. Other visitors were: Mrs Peppier, Mrs,: Rhodda, and the Misses Peppier. Thanl were again due to Mrs Williams for gifts of apples and rusks, which were greatly enjoyed by the children, and to Mr Cottier for work done voluntarily. ... During the month the committee ». vited the mothers and members of the Ladies', Committee to » " "Jg™" social, when many attended. T J e ' * dents gave a short programme of! songs and gfmes, after which afternoon tea was served.