Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-02-02
THE HOUSEHOLD.



At the recent meeting of the Vermont Dali
rymen's Association at Burlington, Prof. A.
T. Grinnell, of the medical department of the
university of Vermont, spoke upon milk in
Health and Disease He spoke upon milk.
he said, from point of view strictly scientific
There is, he said, no substitute for milk. Up
on it depends the development of men and
women and many animals. One-ffth of all
the people that are born die during the first
year of their life, and one-third within the
first five years. Much of this mortality is
not due to Providence, to whom we are apt to
attribute all ills, but to ourselves. We often
see infants fed on corn-starch, farina. and
other substances containing starch, which can
never be digested by the infantile stomach
A child at teething time has power to manu-
facture a substance in its saliva which can
convert starch into glucose; but prior to that
time it cannot digest starchy matter, and feed
ing 1t upon such substances leads to disease
and death. Milk is the only proper food for
infants, and all preparations are inferior to
cows milk. Mothers milk is, of course. the
best and most natural food, and next to il
comes cows milk. DIR. Grnnell next describ-
ed the physiological process of digestion at
some length, showing the evils arising from
feeding infants with starchy substances, and
continued Milk, whether it contains fat it.
self or not tends to make fat-to make adj
pose matter in the human system. The light
est milk is not necessarily the poorest milk
1t may, and often does, contain more fatty
matter than milk of greater specific gravity
1t is simply lacking in saline matter Milk
contains in itself everything necessary to sun
port life. 1t is believed that man can live
upon milk alone. A late distinguished ply
stefan, well known here lived for years upon
only milk and rice. But such food, of course
VIII not do for man who has much physical
labor to perform. Every man at almost every
meal eats more than he requires and more
than he ought to but kindly nature has pro
vided means for obyiating the consequences
of excess
There is not so much dissimilarity between
cows milk and woman's milk as has been be-
leVed In woman's milk 50 parts out of eve
ry 100 arc water in cows milk, Sc ; and in
other respects there is close similarity The
speaker then gave an analysis of the milk of
different animals, and said that cows milk was
the only desirable substitute formOther's milk
Some people think they cannot eat milk, but
he believed there is not one person in 10, 600
who cannot live entirely on milk. Milk diet
has come to be considered of great impor-
lance by the medical profession. In Phila-
delphia one hospital is devoted exclusively to
milk diet Patients are fed two ounces of
milk every two hours at first and are finally
/
massage and electricity, works almost mira
Giles in curing the sick. Milk is now used
largely in febrile diseases. In typhoid fever
many doctors make their patients live entirely
on milk.
DR.. Grinnell then traced the course of milk
in its passage through the stomach, showing
the changes it undorgoes, and continued
The fat, or cream, of milk contains six kinds
of fat, margarine leading in quantity; three
fixed oils and three volatile. 1t is these that
give butter its favor-a flavor that no art can
initiate. Every person who needs fat gets it
in butter. He also gets it in oleomargarine
which is very useful article. 1t contains
everything that makes butter except the fla
yor. But even oleOnarGarine is adulterated
cotton-seed oil being sometimes put into IT,
But If pure 1t is Il perfect substitute for but
ter so far as its component elements are con-
cerned. OF course it is not really butter, and
never can be, and if l were farmer would
never be afraid of any dangers arising from
its competition.
Skim-milk cheese, the speaker said, is an
exceedingly useful article of food and ought
to be in more general use. All it lacks is fat
and most of us eat too much fat anyway. Our