Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene; Infants -- Health and hygiene
Milk, then, contains every ingredient to build up the body, which is
more than can be said of any other known substance besides. A child
may live entirely, and grow, and become both healthy and strong, on
milk and on milk alone, as it contains every constituent of the human
body. A child cannot "live by bread alone," but he might on milk
alone! Milk is animal and vegetable--it is meat and bread--it is food
and drink--it is a fluid, but as soon as it reaches the stomach it
becomes a solid [Footnote: How is milk in the making of cheese,
converted into curds? By rennet. What is rennet? The juice of a
calf's maw or stomach. The moment the milk enters the human maw or
stomach, the juice of the stomach converts it into curds--into solid
food, just as readily as when it enters a calfs maw or stomach, and
much more readily than by rennet, as the _fresh_ juice is stronger
than the _stale_. An ignorant mother often complains that because,
when her child is sick, the milk curdles, that it is a proof that it
does not agree with him! If, at those times, it did _not_ curdle, it
would, indeed, prove that his stomach was in a wretchedly weak state;
she would then have abundant cause to be anxious.]--solid food; it is
the most important and valuable article of diet for a child in
existence. It is a glorious food for the young, and must never, on any
account whatever, in any case be dispensed with. "Considering that
milk contains in itself most of the constituents of a perfect diet,
and is capable of maintaining life in infancy without the aid of any
other substance, it is marvellous that the consumption of it is
practically limited to so small a class; and not only so, but that in
sick-rooms, where the patient is surrounded with every luxury,
arrow-root, and other compounds containing much less nutriment, should
so often be preferred to it."--_The Times._
Do not let me be misunderstood. I do not mean to say, but that the
mixing of farinaceous food--such as Lemann's Biscuit Powder, Robb's
Biscuit, Hard's Farinaceous Food, Brown and Polson's Corn Flour, and
the like, with the milk, is an improvement, in some cases--a great
improvement; but still I maintain that a child might live and thrive,
and that for a lengthened period, on milk--and on milk alone!
A dog will live and fatten for six weeks on milk alone; while he will
starve and die in a shorter period on strong beef-tea alone!
It is a grievous sin for a milkman to adulterate milk. How many a
poor infant has fallen a victim to that crime!--for crime it may be
truly called.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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