The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-09-30
SAVE THE CHILDREN.

Detrimental food which, by reason of
their superior strength, may not seriously
affect the health of adults, as is well
known, frequently acts upon the more
delicate organs of the child to produce
disorders of the most serious character.
The amount of laudanum or other poison
that would be harmless to an adult will
caueC The death of an infant. This great
difference between the vitality of adults
and children is too generally overlooked
In the preparation of food. Because no
harm Immediately perceptIble comes to
the adult 10y the use of an article of food,
no thought is given to the effect 1t may
have upon the more delicate organs of
inferior aga.
Children diet largely upon cake and
bread, and these articles, If light, sweet
and composed of materials that are free
from Injurious substances are easily
digested, nutritious and wholesome.
There is danger TO our children how
ever, lurking in their bread and cake
which is too often lost sight of. These
articles are now leavsned largely by bak,
ing powders, and when pure and whole
some baking powders are used they make
not only the most paiatable food, but one
much more wholesome and nutritive than
if leavened with yeast or cream of tartar
and soda. The trouble arises from the
fact as shown by recent scientific tests
by the Government chemists and by
official boards of health, that all these
baking powders with the single exception
or the Royal, contain either lime, alum,
phospLates, or acids of an injurious
character. Therefore when bread or
cake is made with the use of these cheap
baking powders these ingredients (Which
are present through the efforts of the
manufacturers to produce a cheaper
article) pass into the food and are taken
into the delicate organs of childhood
where they are the source of very much
of the disease with which our children
are afflicted.
Persons who have not strong constitu-
hons, growing girls, young children and
nursing mothers are particularly liable to
the evil effects produced by the intro
duction of the aduterants named as
found in the cheap baking powders.
Heartburn aud the prevalent forms of
Indigestion are often solely traceabIe to
the action of alum on the delicate coats
of the stomach. Prof. Willard Parker,
U. s. Surgeon General Hammond, Prof.
Alonzo Clark, most eminent physicians
OF New York, with scores OF others, have
written and spoken most earnestly of the
evils arising from partakiug of such food.
There should be as much care in the
cho ce Of baking powder as in obtain
ing pure milk or in having prescription
compounded from pure drugs aud not
from pOisons
The matter is one of the greatest i'm
portaDce, particularly to the rising
generation, and while our conservative
law makers are making their minds as
to the proper legislation to stop the sale
Of the poisonous compounds, mothers
will do well to study it carefully. The
housekeeper will experience no incon-
veDience in discarding the use of the
adultefated baking powder, if she has
been using it, as the Royal Baking Pow
der upon the purity and wholesomeness
of which all the Government chemists
agree, is equally accessible; but she will
need to exercise a close watch upon her
packages from the grocer in order to
prevent the inferior brands from creeping
INTO her kitchen unawares.
In what We have felt it our duty TO say
in reference to the subject of baking
powder there is no intention to disparage
the work or the products of those many
manufacturers in other lines of food pro-
ducts who, with couReientiousness and
lberality, are serving the pnblic with
pure and wholesome articles of diet.