438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dyspeptic, the extent of which he probably never dreamed of himself 

 when he uttered it : " Live on a shilling a day, and earn it" 



This sentence, translated into the language of the present, in New 

 York, would be to each individual, " Earn a dollar a day and feed 

 yourself with that alone." This would approximate to living healthily 

 as did our forefathers though it is impossible for a man of ordinary 

 means to feed himself healthily in New York, because bread is a prime 

 necessity. The greater part of the flour which comes to the market is 

 but little different from pure starch, so thoroughly is it bolted by the 

 miller, so thorough-bred (no play on the words) is the grain itself. The 

 wheat itself has suffered in its nutritious qualities by the extreme care 

 taken in its cultivation. The canary-bird fancier, in his zeal to raise 

 high-colored birds by interbreeding, obtains his buttercup-yellow, but 

 at the cost of a very scanty plumage. The stock-raiser gets his thor- 

 ough-bred horse with his thin neck, small head, diminutive ears, grey- 

 hound legs, and peculiar barrel, but with them a high nervous organi- 

 zation and uncertain temper, that make the animal impracticable for 

 the ordinary pursuits of life. The same state of things is seen in the 

 wheat of the country, which, having first nearly exhausted the unfer- 

 tilized soil, finishes by being itself exhausted of the nutritious phos- 

 phates and nitrogenous elements so necessary for the bone and nervous 

 tissues of the human frame. This is very important, especially for the 

 young, a great portion of whose alimentation comes from bread. Add 

 to this deprivation of essential elements, the substitution of starchy 

 substances capable of but imperfect assimilation by any stomach, 

 especially that of a young child, and we have an important source of 

 animal imperfection and debility. 



We find like cause of degeneration if we look at another leading 

 source of the life of children milk. Dr. Nathan Allen, in his recent 

 elaborate article (" Physical Degeneration," Journal of Psychologi- 

 cal Medicine, October, 1870), says that American women are to a great 

 extent incapable of nursing their children, and that they necessarily re- 

 sort to the bottle and cow's milk. How bad is this substitute, very few 

 have even surmised. We know there is no exaggeration of the ill re- 

 sults from the use of the so-called swill-milk, which, in greater or less 

 quantities, furnishes the chief supply of all our large cities and towns. 

 The present writer made the initial observations on swill-milk, in New 

 Tork, and his report to the Academy of Medicine was the basis of the 

 subsequent general interest in the subject. This milk is deleterious, 

 because new principles are introduced into the milk, and the normal 

 ones distorted and rendered almost nugatory. 



But, setting this matter aside, let us look at the healthy milk of the 

 whole country, and perhaps of the world. What is it ? 



When a woman, in the vigor of health, while nursing her own child 

 at the breast, becomes again pregnant, her first knowledge of and at- 

 tention to this fact frequently arise from the effects of her milk upon 



