River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-09-30
Save ihe Children.

Save The Children.
Detrimental foods, which, by reason
of their superior strength, may not
seriosly affect the health of adults, as
is well known, frequently act upon
the more delicate organs of the child
to produce disorders of the most seri-
GUS character. The amount of lauda-
mum or other poison that would be
harmless TO an adult will cause the
death of an infant. This great differ
ence between the vitality of adults
and children is too generally over.
looked in the preparation of food.
Because no harm Immediately percepti-
BILE comes to the adult by the use of
an article of food, no thought is given
to the effect it may have upon the more
delicate organs OF inferior age.
Children diet largely upon cake
and bread, and these articles, If light,
sweet and composed of material that
are free from injurious substances,
are easily digested, nutritious and
wholesome. There is danger to our
children, however, lurking in their
bread and cake which is too often
lost sight of. These articles are now
leayened largely by baking powders,
and when pure and wholesome baking
powders are used. they make not only
the most palatable food, but one much
more wholesome and nutritive than
If leayened 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 of the Royal,
contain either lime, alum, phosphates,
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 that have not strong con
stitutlons, growing girls, young chill
dren and nursing mothers are partic-
ularly liable to the evil effect produced
by the Introduction of the adulter-
ants named, as found in the cheap
baking powders. Heartburn and the
prevalent forms of Indigestion are
often solely traceable 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 physic-
ians of New York, with scores of
others, have written and spoken most
earnestly of the evils arising from
partaking of such food. There should
be as much care in the choice of a
baking powder as in obtaining pure
milk or in having a prescription COM
pounded from pure drugs and not
from poisons.
The matter is one of greatest i'm
portance, particularly to the rising
generation, and while our conserva-
tive law makers are making up their
minds as to the proper legislation to
stop the sale of the poisonous COM
pounds, mothers will do well to study
it carefully. The housekeeper will ex-
perience no inconvenience in discard
ing the use of the adulterated baking
powder, if she has been using it, as
the Royal Baking Powder, 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.