Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-02

pect the modesty which inspired his frank declaration
 When my own great grandfather died Of smallpox, more than 9 hundred years ago the authorities of the time refused permission to inter his body in any cem- ' etery, or to inter it by daylight, or to carry it along or even across any public highway. His sons dug his grave on little hillock on his own farm, and laid him in it at midnight, without the assist ance or attendance of single neighbor When l was a small boy a member of | the family was stricken with fever. Her , calls for water were constant and pitt | ful. But none was allowed her, or only 1 infrequent thimblafuls.
 f Things are done differently, nowadays. We have acquired wider knowledge and what is the continuation of wisdom have come to appreciate that the things
 we really know are, after all, only a
 minor fraction of the vastly more numer-
 ous things we don't know. Really wise
 men are the very first to admit their ig-
 norance They are much less inclined
 to be dognatic than shaliower brained | amateurs of narrower outlook.
 Moreover, every year sees fresh dis coveries in the mystery of hUnan nutri-
 tion and digestion, which tend to modify
 sometimes quite to reverse existing no tions. For instance it has long been held by the diet sharps that raw starch was indigestible and should always be sub jected to thorough cooking. Many went so far as to forbid the use of cornstarch
 and similar buildings, quickly made and little cooked, on the ground that raw
 starch was harmful. Now, it seems, that
 idea can be given up. Says a recent
 weekly newsletter of the department of
 agriculture:
 The idea that raw starch is not di-
 gestible has been proven erroneous, at least in the case of health adults. In
 a series of experiments conducted by the Ioffice of home economies United States
 department of agriculture, it has been
 found that cornstarch, wheat starch, and
 rice starch were all digested completely
 when eaten in frozen pudding in which they constituted as much as 20 per cent of the entire dish. Raw potato starch later in the same kind of pudding was
 found to be less digestible, giving an av- craze of 7S.2 per cent digestibility and similar results were obtained with other , tuber and root starches. The textbook , statement that raw starch is not digest. < ibe will now have to be changed, and , persons who have feared harmful ef. feet from the presence of raw starch ir
 foods may allay all apprehensions." Perhaps that last remark about al } laying all apprehensions is a little broad u There are exceptions to most rules. Whil, R the home economies people may very \ likely have demonstrated that raw starcl is fairly digestible by most healthy adults i it doesn't follow that there may not b. exceptional cases where it is quite un E desirable
 We all remember the famous dictum E Doubtless God might have made a bet 5 ter berry than the strawberry but doubt E less God never did.'' Yet there are quit, a number of people in this world wh, can't eat stra awberries-can't even ca a single one without it's causing an ir ritating rash.
 There is no better more whoIesom food than milk for the most of us Nev ertheless there are those to whom it i not only repulsive but almost toxic have a near neighbor who cannot & E much as taste it with impunity To thos of us who consume it easily by the quar when any form of solid food is out o the question, such state is hardly com prehensible. It cannot be gainsaid. how ever. And if milk gives my neighbo 5 the stomach ache, I don't blame her fo saying that she will drink no more milk There always is, nevertheless. the dan \ ger that a too constant dwelling upo
 ones own digestion and a too sedulou
 dependence upon self observed symptom will lead to a good many whims an
 crotchets. Hypochondria is slower bu
 about as disagreeable as hydrophobia- \ especially to the bypochondriac's asso E ciates
 While there are admittedly many actus s freaks some who can't eat strawberrie!
 some who can't drink milk, some who ar \ distressed by cornstarch nUddinr ctr
 the chances are three cut of four i E any particular case that 1t is more large \ ly a matter of imagination than of actus E digestion.
 I once tried out a dogmatic old fe \ low who declared that nobody coul J fool him about butter. He could te