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of the milk necessary, otherwise it would be too sweet If the milk
has already been skimmed or separated, such dilution results in a
fluid which is little more than a solution of cane sugar. The use
of such a milk for the feeding of infants inevitably results in the
production of "rickets," which is apparently due to excess of carbohydrate
and poverty of proteid and fat in the milk. All medical
men who see much of children's diseases recognise that much harm
is done in this way by the continued use of such milks as that
under consideration. There is also reason to believe that the
presence of an excess of cane sugar in the diet of infants is apt, from
fermentation in the stomach, to result in the production of acidity,
colic and diarrhoea.*
Dr. Evan Jones, speaking from his experience in general practice
in Pinsbury, said that the addition of sugar is unnecessary for the
preservation of condensed milk, as several of the very best brands
are unsweetened. The quantity of cane sugar in this milk rendered
much dilution necessary. Condensed milk is extensively used for
child feeding, and the cheaper the price of the tin the more that
quality is used by the poor, who do not understand the difference
between good and bad condensed milk, and their only guide is its
consistence, to obtain which cane sugar is often used. The "Acorn"
brand, when diluted according to instructions, might—if used for
infant feeding—in the summer, quickly produce fermentation, sickness
and diarrhœa; and if in cooler weather it was possible for some
time to avoid these troubles, the child would waste from want of fat
in its diet, and many such children die from exhaustion and stomachic
diseases. The use of condensed milk, in his opinion, was responsible
for a number of deaths of infants under one year.
Mr. Beck, for the defence, contended that it was not necessary to
disclose the fact on a label on the tin that the condensed milk was
° In reference to this class of milks Dr. Robert Hutchison, in his work on
Food and Dietetics (1902, p. 444), says:—"There can be no doubt that an
immense amount of harm is done to infants by the indiscriminate use of such
milks. Babies fed on them may look fat enough, but they are pale and flabby
and often suffer from rickets, for fatness produced by abundance of sugar in the
milk is by no means a sure indication of health, and the pictures of such fat but
flabby infants so freely spread abroad by the makers of condensed milks are
very deceptive."