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18
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
I may remark, while speaking of milk, that a very common error in the diet of
children, is that of feeding them upon bread and butter with tea or no milk, or
but a very small proportion. The more finely divided the substances used as
food are, the more readily and perfectly are they acted upon by the juices of
the alimentary canal, and digested; and fatty matters being difficult of digestion,
the very finely divided state of the butter in milk renders this liquid of
great importance in the nutrition of the body, especially where the body is
growing, or where the assimilative powers are feeble. Hence, bread and
butter cannot replace milk, or bread and milk, in the food of children.
In the Registrar General's tables is a column set aside for deaths arising
from want of breast-milk. But why should death be occasioned by want of
breast-milk? Cannot we imitate the composition of breast-milk exactly ?
Certainly! But the cause of death in cases thus registered is not correctly
expressed. As soon as the natural supply of breast-milk is found to be
insufficient, artificial food is supplied, and it is well known that in almost every
instance this has no resemblance whatever to natural milk, being far better
adapted for the food of a ploughman. And what is the consequence? The
food is not digested, but acts as an irritant poison to the tender bowels of the
infant, which throw it off by incessant diarrhoea; the child cannot be satisfied,
because it receives no nourishment from the food; the body emaciates; the
child starves and dies; and the column in the Registrar General's returns
becomes requisite! But even the number of deaths entered in this column
does not represent the true mortality from this cause, because many of the
deaths are returned as occurring from diarrhoea.
The great importance of attending to the mortality of children is evident,
when we recollect that not far short of one half of the total number of deaths
occurs in children under five years of age.
TEA AND COFFEE.
These must be looked upon as articles of luxury; for there is not more
nourishment in a pint of tea than in a piece of bread as large as the end of
the finger. Their most active ingredient is the warm water, which serves to
warm the body, when sufficient exercise is not taken, but at the expense of
weakening the tone of the digestive organs. They contain a large amount of
astringent matter, the effect of which is counterbalanced by the relaxing effect
of the warm water.* The amount of the feebly poisonous alkaloid in tea and
coffee is too small to exert any injurious action, but it certainly affords no
nutriment. I have not examined any samples of tea, for the reasons above
stated; it being also known that nothing injurious is added to this article.
Some of the samples of coffee contained a large amount of chicory, which
I believe is more wholesome than either tea or coffee; and I cannot but
consider that the substitution of this substance for the latter will be beneficial
to the poorer classes, who will be enabled to apply the money hitherto spent
upon the costly foreign articles to the purchase of really nutritive food. The
adulterations of the other articles of food or luxury have no injurious effects
upon health. Thus I cannot find fault with the mixture of various kinds of
*That the relaxing effects of the warm water exceed the effects of the astringent
matter, is evidenced by the well-known fact, that the action of a small dose of Epsom
salts will be increased by being taken in warm tea or coffee, notwithstanding the
large amount of astringent matter they contain.