58 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 



scorbutics, meat-juice and grape-juice are much less 

 potent, but any of the three is too dear under war 

 conditions for many poor mothers. Correspondingly 

 with war conditions the use of dried milk for infants 

 has increased, and the need for a cheap anti-scorbutic 

 safeguard has therefore increased also. We have tried 

 to devise one, and are of opinion that swede-juice is 

 to be recommended. Recent unpublished researches 

 show that it is greatly more active than carrot- and 

 beetroot-juice, and the swede is a cheap vegetable. 

 The juice must be prepared fresh daily, but the pre- 

 paration is very simple. The raw swede is grated on 

 a kitchen grater, and the gratings are squeezed by 

 hand through muslin, when the juice runs out freely. 

 One or two tablespoonfuls would probably be ample 

 to protect an infant. 



It is most important that the wisdom of giving 

 added anti-scorbutic when the milk is other than fresh 

 cow's milk should be fully appreciated. Some autho- 

 rities are of opinion that it is unnecessary, and un- 

 doubtedly many children will get through somehow 

 without it, but they will not have received the 

 optimum conditions of nutrition which we should 

 seek to give to every child. 



It is to be hoped that the Ministry of Health, when 

 it comes to be established, will take up these funda- 

 mental questions of infant feeding; an adequate pro- 

 vision of fresh cow's milk must be made for every 

 child, and the deficiency diseases of rickets and scurvy 

 must cease to exist. 



E. M. H. 



