The Physical Training of ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
The Physical Training of Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene
Milk contains every ingredient to build up the body, which is more than
can be said of any other known substance. A child may live entirely, 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 a fluid, but as soon as it reaches
the stomach it becomes a solid—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, in any case, be dispensed with. 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 calf’s 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.
“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 marvelous 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.”
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,
Hards’ Farinaceous Food, Brown and Polson’s Corn Flour, and the like,
with the milk, is an improvement—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 truly be
called.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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