OUR BABIES.

Grey River Argus, 17 April 1909, Page 4

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia). Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of th« Health of Women and Children. BEEF TEA AMD MEAT EXTRACTS Last week we published the following table in order to give mothers some idea of the relative nutritive value and working powers of different foods Jjnd drew special attention to the cxtremf! deficiences in barley water and banl tea respectively. Table buowiko tub vohbeii of odncks oj Buoar, fat, akd r-koteid in 100 odnce! (FIVE riMTB) OF VAKIOPB I'LUIUR COM MONIT OIVBN TO BABIES, AND SItOWIN( ALSO TUB FUEL VALVE PBR rlHt OF EACH., , . Sugar or . Fuu I Starch Fat . Frotold Value Wet Per Per . Per oat, wuix cQukt. tdat Watec ... «» .»> >.. — — — . , - Pure JJiebJ»'» Bxtrncfc — — " — ■ ' ; - Battoy Watot \ — — . U Beef lea or clear soup — - — \\ 3J Sugar «t milk solution, made liy u^dlug an . ounce ot tmKat of . " .milk to a pint of - Doihng water ;., 5 — _ u< 1 Condonsed milk aud waier;v ordinary , Btrenffth for babies ai recommended^ 1.c.,1 to U.ol water 4 J » 13; ' Skim mUkwhey ... .-.. 6 — 1 i4< ) 1 Cow's milk and water (enwklwwta) ........ 2fc. 1} . 2 W. ' Cow f » inuk nnrt barloy wivtor (equal parts) 8 1} 'I 21 New nulU wliey ... ... 6 H 1 22 ; Human or huumuißOrt •• ' niUk 7 I.l} 41 f\ LIEBIG'S JEXTRACT. Tins week I have added Licbig'

would go straight to bed. After eat- w ing I'd get burning pains at the J breastbone, running right through to < mv shoulder blades. I'd feel quite suf . focated. My back was always acnin.r cruelly. I only wanted he down al 'day on the lounge. I could hardly bend, or stoop. I felt as if a knife were g&ing through me My heart would thump wildly at the least exertion. If I climbed a stair Id have to sit down on the top to gasp for breath. Neighbours would help me occasionally, and make me little dainties such a beef tea. For months at * time I never went out of the house, I was carried each day from my bed io the couch on the balcony and when we removed I had to be taken in a cab. My tongue always coated and it gave me a horid taste At night I slept very badly. I'd toss and turn for hours and start up m ■be-1 with bad turns as if I were chokintr. I had several doctors and though I spent large sums of money I got no lasting benefit. Then I tried Dr Wiliams' Pink Pills, and decided to give them a fair chance. The first box did me a little good.. I began to eat belter, and my blood .slowly got richer. I kept on with them taking three a day. Soon my face and lips got some colour in them, and I began to regain" my figure and fill out. I used to be most wretchedly downcast, but this backache ceased and I found myself able once more to get abou'. and do housework, and last . Christmas I was able to take a holidavCttf B'ellmgtoriv-. People could . haidly believe it. I am a changed

Extract to the table, and it will be noticed that this substance, which is the fundamental type and forerunner of the dozen of other meat extracts In vogue in the present day, is even more valueless than beef tea. It contains no food at all, unless a little happens to be left in during the process of manufacture, as an accidental impurity I Dr Hutchison, in the latest edition of his authoritative book on '■ "FocJ and Dietetics," after showing that there is no "food" in Liebig's Extract, turns" to consider the pos- ; «ible value of. -the only other organic. [ constituents — namely, the so-called . Extractives, and says: — : it isMip,oh the Extractives, then, that the" uses and- value of Liebig's Extract must chiefly . depend, and for that reason we must 'now look a little more closely at their chemk ical and physiological properties, j- On the chemical properties of the extractives of meat - »we r have put scantly information. . • These !sub- , Stances represent the fragments^ as it were, of broken-down proteid,vand are of no_us_e"'as'-tissuQ-b.uildcrs/ . --—-. . . llley are alscylncajablc :of ' bring oxidised in the ibod'y, and so ate useless as sources ot heat or ' energy. Being neither tissuebuilders nor chcrgy-producers, they cannot be regarded as foods'. Experiment confirms this, for it was lound that rats which were fed on *oui grammes of meat extract daily died quite as soon as other rats which got no food a tall, and Jes•jom quotes a "writer who consumed lia'f a pot of Liebigs Extract at a sitting, and yet felt as hungry as ever afterwards. To do Licbig justice he recognis«d this himself. "Meat extract," be says somewhere, "cannot make its sirong, but it makes us aware of ujr strength." We have here introduced the notion that the extractives of meat act as ltstimular.rs," a view which has, since been Ifcqunntly maintained. It must.be admitted, 'however that .satisfactory evidence for any belief in the "stimulant" must act either on the heart, quickening and strengthen--uijcr its action, or upon the central nervous system, abolishing or lessening fatigue. Now, it has been . shown that two ounces of Liebig's Extract can be taken at one time by a healthy man without the production of any effect other than slight diarrhoea. Certainly- no increase ,in the rapidity of force of Uw pulse was observed. . . Of 1.1)111 so. if the extract bo taken, as U usually is, dissolved in hot water •'V itself is quite ca»able of producing such an effect. . As_ regards an influence on the nisrvous system, the evidence is equally unsatisfactory. There is no proof that the extractives of meat iict as s.tsnM>Ja»is. Or ITntchisoii then goes on to point out that while failing to stimulate the organism in other, directions, Extractives do really act as appetisers and oiorooto the secretion of gastic iuice; but, on the other hand, a very large body of the medical profession ac'cej'tF 1 I'he tmphasc 9"tatemetns of Dc llaig and his school, who contend that them is not even this last loothoid left for , meat extracts, because,"the primary stimulation is followed f later ; on by depression, which requir)[is: turthor stimulation to remove it.-"-i'TKr.v- coiieeifd also that the taking '''ofmfa't extracts tends to further load <tfs'^'w'i'th! 'poisonous waste products^ ialr^dy^; clogging the system owing; '^^tfr hab^it of eating more meat than we need. However, I am prepared to meet noonla -who, having pinned their faith to some one; of the "Ox in Teacup" patent nostrums, will fall back on the specious ? statements contained in the advertisemeritsj and I expect to : find 'him saying? "Yes; we qliite -ad- > mit "that the old-fashioned Liebig's' i Extract is no good, but the new Ex- ■ tracs iotitairi ' food -""'Stuff in addition 1 to extractives." Of. course they do, but-- this merry means- that the enterp prising proprietors resort to some B . such, expedient as drying and grind--1 irig' to I . powder, some of. the exhausted "beef tea meat," which thcy~ mix I, with the Extractives. By this means . «wr»i<i of «va waste stuff formerly - ihro^n away Is now sold at, say, ten 1 shillings a pound, and goes to ''fur5. thcr --s,well the already stupendous profits oj ".'the. millionaire companies. The readiness with which, by means or 8 a neffc name, tne average man or woman is gulled through advertisemctus into; purchasing stale, and jj spoiled what they can have at a mere fraction of the .cOst fresh and wliole--2 jsome is one of the most curious .cv-. 3 idenccs of human stupidity. In the presenr case the explanation and the 0 '^knowing why" are so obvious as to l»e worth 1 recording. Liebig really ijftlieviecT "more or less in the vafue s '■ . - . ■.-"■■

ramaa since I took Dr Williams' Pink Pills. If ever I feel myself running do\Mi I take one."