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The different food values are expressed as calories. You
remember that a calorie is a heat standard and is the
amount of heat required to raise one litre of water one degree
Centigrade, and is always used to express the energy value
of food, just as a foot rule is used to measure length or an
ounce in calculating weight.
Having no slums or a very serious amount of unemployment,
it cannot be said that there has been any marked
degree of lack of food—not covered by insurance—public
assistance or milk grants. No doubt many were on the
borderland of the minimum laid down by the Ministry, but
on the whole, the amount of food received has been
adequate.
POISONING BY ANTIMONY.
The Memorandum 171 of the Ministry of Health draws
attention to the danger of storing acid drinks and food in
cheap enamel-ware.
Tartaric and citric acid, for example, coming into contact
with modern enamel have been found to form compounds
of antimony which have given rise to outbreaks of
poisoning by antimony.
NOTES ON CURRENT SUBJECTS,
One cannot be easily convinced that the benefits which
ultimately accrue from the efforts of Authorities in favour
of the scores of Public Health activities are in any sense
commensurate with the enormous annual expenditure of
money.
Whilst no one can doubt the obvious and immediate
success of Infant Welfare work throughout the country in
assisting the young child to make a fair start in life with
the best physical equipment, one sees how soon the good
derived may be neutralised by preventable causes. Many
factors contribute to this end.
We cannot attribute ill-health to the noxious environment
of slum life, for slums here are practically non-existent,
but the indulgence of parents who make little attempt to
control the boy and girl is often very marked, especially
during the daylight saving period.
On visiting the schools you can almost pick out the
children who are permitted to remain up until 9, 10, and
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