The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-04-20
VITAMIN A AND RESPIRATORY
 INFECTION


 All felons confined in prisons ought to be
 made available to medical science, as experi- mental material Could any humane and fair
 minded person object to the use of such mate rial. in nutrition experiments, for example? It would be comparatively easy to keep thous- and prisoners on particular diet for month
 or year. and thousand of their fellows on the same diet plus minus the one factor un- der study. That would give properly con- trolled scientific test and we might learn much to the advantage of the race. At present we
 have to depend largely upon animals for our experimental material, and 1t Is not possible to l assume that what is good or sufficient for an | animal is proper or adequate nourlshment TOT a child
 One of the mistakes we have made in at tempting to apply the results of animal experl- mentation to human nutrition is the assump- l ton that Vitamin Helps infants and children particularly to gain immunity against respira- tory infections. Some observations of four groups of infants. through the autumn and win ter months, by Dr L. H. Barenberg and J. M. Lewis of New York, indicated that in fants receiving a large daily ration of Vitamin have no greater immunity against respiratory infections than have infants receiving very lit- tie Vtamin A.
 But such study does not lessen the assur- ance given us by animal experimentation ex- clusively, that Vitamn A is essential for the development of normal immunity against re- spiratory infections It merely serves to re- l mind that cannot apply animal experi- mentation to human physiology.
 The point is that Vtiamin A is probably es- sential for the development of a fair degree of | immunity against respiratory infections espe- l cially in the infant young child. But it does
 not follow that the infant or child gains any l superabundance of Vitamin either in the l form of cod liver oil or otherwise.
 l Because physicians in recent years have ad- 1 vised giving every infant especially artiicially fed infant, daily ration of a teaspoonfu of l cod liver oil, from the age of four weeks to the end of the first year, some parents have as
 stunned that cod liver oil is rather good for chil- | dren of any age. That is not so. It is general 1 ly inadvisable to give any cod liver oil or any concentrate purporting to provide Vitamin
 to a child over one year of age, unless it IS definitely prescribed by physician for the 1 treatWent of a specific condition.
 l Likewise it is probable that moderate ex- posture of the infants or child's naked skin to sunlight, or to ultraviolet light from artificial source, is sufficient to prevent rickets and to
 enable the child to develop % protective immun- i'm essary that the child should acquire coat of
 mahogany tan, though such pigmentaton may | be good guage of the amount of open air l treatment in cases of tuberculosis.
 Good natural food sources of Vitamin axe I egg yolk, butter fat cream. fresh raw milRs yellow foods-carrots. sweet potatoes, squash. ripe banana, yellow corn yellow corn meal.
 and most of the green leafy relishes. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The Woman Who Likes to Walk l February an article in this column referred l to the Man Who Once Walked Q Mile. mother
 nearly 45 years of age told us the time will come when people will point to such a man as
 an anomaly. Then she mentioned the difficulty she has in finding woman companion on her
 walks This brought in eager inquiries from numerous other women who like walking and | who experience much of the same sort of gen. 1 eral paralysis among their women friends. I | regret failed to keep a memorandum of the l first contributors address. A Rochester, N. Y., reader and a Newark N. J.. reader, both fair walking fans, anxious to walk with her. | The latter says she walks never less than 6
 miles . day, no matter what the weather. The 1 Rochester lady Is fond of weekend hikes of | from 20 to 30 miles, sleeping IF hours at a
 tourist home, and then hiking back next day. | Great health stun, this. There has never been | Q time wheIf- ordinary walking was of greater | health value than 1t is to-day. It buffers no parsnips for me to say So, but believe lot of near r>invalids who now keep expensive phys | icians in golf pants would enjoy more and bet
 ter years on this planet if they would invest
 two hours a day in walking. (Sez Ole Doc
 Brady). t Where All Paths Meet
 Why the sarcastic cracks about the osteo-
 down of the barriers between various schools l or systems of healing one day. and then the | next day you toss on . mean dig at osteopathy. (S M. B.l
 Answer-And the next day one about homeo-
 pathy, and the next one about allopathy. All pathies joke unsophsticated people. | In this day and generation the licensed healer
 should be trusted to employ whatever method the circumstances indicate. regardless of which | school" may have introduced or developed the
 method The practice of having various boards didates who sock a license to practice is kept
 up to-day mainly for the soft graft there is in it for the politicj1nb.
 tcopyright John F. pilIe co.)