THE PERNICIOUS LOLLIE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 19 September 1911, Page 3

THE PERNICIOUS LOLLIE.

. The dental section of the -British Medical Association put sweetmeats in the dock at the last congress, and tlje verdict was guilty, with only one dissentient. Counsel for the prosecution began by saying something in favour of ■sweets. 'Sugar was one of the most nutritious and wholesome materials in the vegetable kingdom. Then he produced a deadly array of testimony .against them. The use of sweetmeats he; decared to ho limited, and to he overwhelmingly counterbalanced by their abuse. On the subject of colouring matter and impurities in sweets ho was most, alarming. Among the former wore ; the juices of beet-root, currants, cochineal, saffron, blue litmus, “Spanish juice,” and Chinese ink; among the latter, copper ,arsenic, salts of zinc, and picric .a'cid. “One need not here insist on the recital of the list of impurities found in sweets—of the sawdust, clay sand, and -ground nutshells—nor of the intentionally supplied adulterants. Abuse of sweetmeats in the mouth implies dental destruction by mechanical, chemical, and bacteriological means. Of the former, many hard species of sweets actually crack or break off the enamel or den trine on account of their intense hardness,. Sugar almonds and ‘hard-bake’ arc of this type.’ But far more harm is wrought by chemical and bacteriological means.” Another expert declared that the raggedest children in the, poorest parts of London often had the ■best teeth, because they got “no luxuries, no sweets, and no pickles.” In the midst of this hurricane of attack arose a champion of sweets—Dr Hutchinson, of New York, probably the Dr Hutchinson who writes such interesting, iconoclastic articles on food and exorcise in the- American magazines. He' asked a question which many laymen must often ask in these 'days. “What arc wc to eat? We are warned off wheat; it promotes uric acid. Wo are warned off sugar; it spells dental decay and degeneracy. We must not touch alcohol. Now even bread is attacked. In the words of one of our American philosophers, it would seem to be a very dangerous tiling - ' to be alive.” Dr Hutchinson declared himself strongly in favour of candy and sweets for the growing child, a'nd advised the meeting to trust the instinct of the rising generation. Americans eat candy by the ton, and the Government purchased it by the ton for soldiers in the Philippines to prevent thorn drinking. “'The more sweets you eat,” lie said, “the less is the alcohol danger.” Dr Hutchinson, however, stood alone in hie championing of these delights of childhood.