WHAT WE MUST EAT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1908, Page 2

WHAT WE MUST EAT.

SIR J. CRICHTONrBROWNE ON FOOD AND FEEDING.

At the annual congress last month' of the British Royal Institute of Pub-. lie Health, all the members attended, the meeting of the Preventive Science Section 'in order to hear the presidential address by Sir James CrichtonBrowne. Sir James Criohton-Browne chose for his subject "Parsimony in Nutrition." He commenced (says The Times's report) by declaring that the health and welfare of individuals and of peoples must depend on fight methods of living, and that of all methods of living the most important are those which relate to the upkeep of the body by food. The recognition of the importance of the question ai issue''hacHof late years led a constant repetition of the inquiry, "What must I eat to I be saved? andTeplies had been.fur- i nished by a shouting multitude of enthusiasts, cranks, and empirics, each with an infallible dietetic system of his own. He expressed his belief that the reaction against overfeeding had been, or was, in danger of being carried to excess. He referred to the standards of Professors Voit and Atwater as having been, antil lately, generally accepted by physiologists, and said that the first indication of their being excessive proceeded from Mr Horace Fletcher, an American gentleman, who discovered, or believed that he had discovered, the enormous importance of prolonged mastication, and the possibility, if this prolonged 'mastication were practised, of main- \ taining health and strengh upon ■much I smaller supplies of ' food than had Vhithertp^bee^'regarded'as necessary. , The late Sir Michael Foster invited IMr Fletcher to Cambridge, where j some observations were made which j were to some extent confirmatory of I his claims. In two individuals it was I found that complete bodily efficiency was mantained for some weeks on a well-chewed dietary of less than one- ; half of that usually taken. Sir Michael i declared it to be doubtful whether ; continued efficiency could be maintain!ed on this low diet, and pointed out ' j the desirability of testing Mr I | Fletcher's system in the laboratory 'fully equipped for such an investig^aj tion. The task of doing this was unI dertaken by Professor Chittenden in ! the Scientific School of Yale UniverI sity, and #i^^ results; that, had atj tracted widespread attention. But ias the investigation proceeded the ! chewing business became unimportant, except in so far as it diminished the craving for food, and the real ques* ' tion was found to have reference to i the quantity of proteid material re- ; quired by the human body. Briefly

stated, the conclusion was reached that the daily amount of proteid or albuminous food required for the maintenance of health and vigor was not more than half of the amount that was previously considered necessary. Sir James desired to submit to his audience some considerations which should induce them to pause before accepting Chittenden's views. If Processor Chittenden was right, then; all the world up to this time, with the exception perhaps, of a few supposed faddists, had been wrong. Sir Jamies proceeded to show that all the successful races of the world have habitually consumed proteid food far in excess alike of the Chittenden standard and of what is actually required for the repair of tissue, and it is inconceivable that they; should all. under the most diverse condition's, have fallen into the same mistake. Unable to derive support from European or American usages, Chittenden falls back upon' the Japanese, who are said to consume but a small proportion of proteid ; but here Sir James meets him by the contention that the shape or build of the body must be taken into account as well as its weight, because the larger the surface the greater will be the amount of heat lost by radiation, and the greater the amount of food required to maintain the temperature. He also suggests the possibility that the .abandonment of a meat diet by the Japanese under the influence of Buddhism 1000 years ago may have had something to do with their small stature and their long-continued unprogressiveness. Coincidently .with the remarkable and rapid rise of Japan among ?he nations, there has been a vastly increased consumption of animal food by the best people. Evidence was then adduced to show the bad effects of insufficient diet upon prisoners and the insane, and the milk supply of a healthy nursing mother, as; compared with the weight of her infant, was taken as an illustration of the natural harmony between the amount of food provided and th© reuirements of the body for whose use it is supplied. Sir James proceeded to contend that Chittenden's experiments, however carefully conducted and watched, were not continued for a sufficiently long period to afford conclusive results. The effects of a vegetarian diet could not be fully impressed on the bodily and mental qualities of the race until after two or three generations. Sir James concluded by declaring that it is not so much economy as poverty in nutrition that is the pressing question of the hour: Dr. Hewitt, lecturer in economic zoology at the University of Manchester, read a paper on "The Biology of House Flies in Relation to Public Health." He said we did not need to

call in the aid of flies to explain the dissemination of tuborcle bacilli, but it had been- conclusively shown that they were able to carry the bacilli not only externally, but internally as well, and that the bacilli were virulent in the faeces of the flies. We were still ignorant as to the specific cause of summer diarrhoea, but why should there be a keen desire to explain away the coincidence of the diarrhoea curve and of the number of flies as being nothing more than a coincidence? . I TYPHOID CARRIERS. j Dr. Marsden, secretary of the preventive medicine section, read papers Iby Dr. Davies, medical officer of Bristol, and Dr. J. Walker Hall, professor of pathology at the University College, Bristol, on - "Typhoid Carriers. They stated that at or in the neighbourhood of Bristol they had within six months been able to find no fewer than four outbreaks connected with personal typhoid carriers.* Their argument was that a person who has once suffered from typhoid, may, although apparently perfectly recovered, still carry the germs, and that it is dangerous for such a person to be employed in dealing with the food of others. The "effectiveness" of the person as a carrier of infection may not show itself for years. ' Sir James . Crichton-Browne hoped we should shortly be able to exterminate the^ fly, and that we should have to take our children or grandchildren to the British Museum to see a single specimen. (Laughter.) Mr J. W. Graham (Manchester), in a paper on "The Smoke of Great Towns," said it had been abundantly proved by public-spirited manufacturers that nearly all smoke could be destroyed at a profit, and that by means or gas power, which made no smoke, the greatest economy might be maini tamed. The law needed amendment, but the present law was not carried out. The fact was that, except in London and in seven provincial towns, hardly any prosecutions took place. The whole of the remaining 102 authorities in the course of two years only initiated 164 prosecutions.