ACCESSORY FOOD-FACTORS 57 



land. Many of our poorer people, and those in work- 

 houses and institutions, depend very largely on 

 potatoes for their anti-scorbutic supply. Last spring 

 the scarcity and high price of potatoes put them out 

 of the reach of many, and though there were less than 

 a hundred cases of overt scurvy, there must have been 

 many more hovering on the brink, who, with a few 

 more weeks of the same diet, would have developed 

 it too. They were saved by the new potato crop and 

 the rush of green vegetables which had been held 

 back by the exceptionally long winter. 



Infantile Scurvy. Lastly, there is the problem of 

 infant feeding, which is always a problem, but is 

 intensified by war conditions. 



Barlow's disease, or infantile scurvy, is a disease 

 of which not many acute cases are seen, but there 

 seems a reasonable likelihood that many ailments 

 which are put down to teething or are left undiag- 

 nosed are nothing more nor less than incipient infan- 

 tile scurvy. Fretfulness, tenderness on handling, a 

 failure to put on weight, "baby not doing well", 

 these are all too familiar in infant practice, and there 

 is reason to hope that a proportion of such cases might 

 clear up instantly on a course of anti-scorbutic. 



Fresh cow's milk is not rich in anti - scorbutic 

 vitamine; there is just enough if the diet consists 

 wholly of milk, as is the natural arrangement, but if 

 the milk is pasteurized or sterilized, or dried, or diluted 

 with starch, the proportion of anti-scorbutic vitamine 

 in the diet is reduced and risk is being run. To use 

 cow's milk, entirely untampered with, is the ideal 

 arrangement, but the milk is seldom clean enough, 

 and sometimes the baby cannot digest it. If, then, 

 it is necessary to interfere with the milk in any way, 

 additional anti-scorbutic must be added. 



Orange-juice is undoubtedly the best of such anti- 



