MILK FOR CHILDREN

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 14, 17 July 1934, Page 9

MILK FOR CHILDREN

EFFECT ON GROWTH

LARGE-SCALE TESTS

Aii article which appeared iv the "British Medical Journal" of Juno 2 in reference to two large-scale investigations,, one in Scotland and tlic other in America, into the value of milk, as a,food for children is of considerable atlte'resfc' in view of the controversy .here over the comparative merits of raw and pasteurised milk. At a time when there is a growing opinion among members of the medical profession that milk cannot be recommended for human consumption in the raw state it may be apposite to ask whether children brought up on heated milk do, in fact, thrive as well as those brought up on. raw milk, stated the writer. Two large-scale investigations have been made to answer this question. The first was carried out in Lanarkshire in 1930. For four months in. certain schools 5000 children of 5 to 12; years of age were given three-quarters of a pint of raw grade A. milk a day, and 5000 children in the same: schools were selected to act as a control series. In a second set of schools 5000 childrenwere given threequai'ters -of a pint of tho same milk pasteurised, and another 5000. children in tho same schools were selected to act as controls. Tho childron .were measured and weighed at the beginning and end of the experiment. It was found that the children receiving extra milk grew more rapidly than the controls, and that, the effects of yaw and of pasteurised milk were, so far as it was; possible to judge, equal. VALUE OF PASTEURISATION. Owing, to criticism from, certain quarters of the technical, analysis of the results, all the .figures were submitted to University College, London, for re-examination by aii independent authority. Ih\ Ethel Elderton,. who conducted this^fresh statistical inquiry, has now come to substantially the same conclusions as .those originally reached: "There is no evidence that raw milt has an advantage- over pasteurised or pasteurised over raw in increasing growth when the two are directly compared on this selected material.. iThus the question of the value of pasteurisation turns practically on this' elimination of .possible sources of disease, or on determining \vhcther cases of certain diseases are less frequent when pasteurised rather than'raw milk is taken." THE AMERICAN INQUIRY. The second investigation was undertaken in the United States of America, and was reported in 1932. It" consisted of an extensivo study of the height and weight, at ages from ten months to six years, of two groups of children, one of which had consumed raw milk and the other heated milk. Altogether over 3000 children were studied. Since the number of those who had received no heated milk at all was practically negligible, it was decided to place in the raw-milk group the children who had received raw milk for more than half their lives/ and in tho heated milk group those who had received- heated milk for more than half their lives.

Tho results showed that the .average weight of the raw-milk group was 361b, as compared with a figure of 36.31b for the children. who had received heated milk. The averago height in the rawmilk group was 37.4 inches, and in the heated-milk group 37.5. No ovidence was therefore obtained to suggest that the growth-pronioting capacity of heated milk, plus the supplementary diet received by the average American child, was measurably less than that of raw milk, plus the usual supplementary diet.

It is of interest, however, in view of Dr. Elderton's conclusion, to notice that the children receiving mainly raw milk had apparently suffered more from diphtheria, scarlet fever, intestinal disturbances, and rickets than the children who had received heated milk daily.