The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1909-01-15
DIET AND
HEALTH
By DIR. J. 7. ALLEN
Food Specialist
Author Of "EGfinS for a
Purpose, 1.-THE Metz
Gospel Of Health"
Etc.
INFANT FEEDING.
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.

are undoubtedly hereditary whether
the habits of alcoholism, tobacco and
unnatural eating are transmissible or
not. We know that the vitality of the
infant is determined by the vitality of
the parents-though not altogether by
the average vitality-and the powers
of nutrition are the fundamental pow
ers transmitted to offspring
We may not always be able to trace
family history in eyes and lungs, but
we can always find it in stomach and
liver and intestines.
The food of the young dog, horse,
cow, ape and human, in common with
all other mammalia, is milk. The nat
ural food of the mature dog is flesh;
that of the others is vegetable. The
digestive systems of the ape and man
resemble, slightly, that OF the dog;
not, l think, as some argue, because
their natural food is largely flesh, bat
because nuts closely resemble flesh,
chemically. The gorilla has canine"
teeth, but it is a strict vegetarian. The
boar's canine" teeth are his means
Uf Defense
Albumen, the chief constituent of
flesh, is digested chiefly in the stom-
ach by the action of the gastric fluid.
Accordingly, the intestine of the dog
is short in proportion, the stomach be-
ing 60 per cent. of the entire digestive
tract. The cows stomach is very COM
plicated; she has. in fact, four stom-
achs. This is because her natural
food requires much dilution with sa-
Iva and rumination before it can be
sJassed ON to the intestine. not thai
proteid is the chief element of the
cows food, as in the dog.
Now the stomach of the COW plays
to the intestinal digestion, than in
man. Cows milk is, chemically and
mechanically, adapted to this physio-
logical difference. 1t does not as soon
break up into small curds, and is,
therefore, retained longer in the calf's
stomach. This popularity partly ex-
plains the difficulty of digesting cows
milk and should be considered in any
attempt to modify cows milk so as to
adapt it to infant feeding.
We know that the health of the in
FAINT, it's nervous moods, it's physical
health and temper in general, are in
fluenced by those of the mother,
through the food. This alone would in
dictate the impossibility of perfect
adaptation of cows milk to infant
feeding. At best it is unnatural, but
as it is in many cases necessary, part
ly or entirely, we must make the most
of it. An imperfectly nourished child
is more liable to diseases of child
hood and survives with greater diff
ficulty. Food is not, of course, the
only requirement for health, but it is
fundamental.
While the food of all young NAM
malta is milk, yet the milk is adapted
to their varying development and
varies to large degree, as the food of
the parent. The milk of the dog, for
instance, typical of fesh-eating ami
mails, contains about six times as
much proteid as that of non-flesh eat
ers, including man. The proteid in hu-
man milk is about one-third that in
cows and sleeps milk. Wool requires
large percentage of proteid, and the
cow as she exists to-day produces
three times as much solids, including
fat, as most other herbivorous ami
mails, largely because the demand for
''rich" milk has caused the rejection
of thoae animals that yielded thin
60 -. ;a1 81
cows and human milk is nearly
equal, but the sugar in the former is
only about half The fat in dogs milk
is three times that in human milk,
the sugar one-third. This variation in
dicatAs that fruit sugar should form
of children and adults. The supply of
can6 y to children, or of cane sugar, in
the form of cheap candies, poisoned
with coloring matters, instead of fruit
sugar, which is an important element
Of the natural diet, is serious error.
In cases in which cows milk must
he used, care should be taken to see
that the cow is healthy, unless herd
milk is used, that no preservative is
used, that the bottles and other ves-
sells with which it comes in contact
ars washed well with boiling water,
never with river or cistern water, that
it is not unnecessarily exposed to dust
or barnyard contamination, for milk
absorbs bacteria as a sponge absorbs
water and they develop very rapidly
The feeding bottle should be thorough
ly washed in boiling water after and
before using. 1t is best to have two,
the one not in use kept immersed in a
solution of common baking Soda
Cows milk can not be made iden-
teal with the infants natural food;
but it can BIO Appropriated to it. The
chief difficulty to be overcome is to
modify the large curds of cows milk
that tend to remain in the stomach
longer than they should, as the de-
velopment of the CATS stomach re-
quires that it's food shall have a much
heavier curd than that required by the
infant, in which intestinal digestion
is more important. The use of Tactic
tablets, as explained In my last ar
ticle. entirely obviates this difficulty
besides overcoming othAs objections
to the use Of cows milk
To reduce the proper ton Of the ele-
ments in cows milk to approximately
the standard of human hiilk, pour off
about half of the fat that settles to
the top of the bottle; add as much wa
ter as the whole amount Of milk and a
tablespoonful of sugar. Milk sugar is
to be preferred to cane sugar, always
Objectionable. The addition of a lit
tie lime water is, in many cases, 5ens-
fetal.
Az Q ruls infants, ike adults. are