NOTES 3i9 



Germans, Russians, and Canadians laugh at our arrangements. The writer has 

 inquired whether colds are very frequent in Northern Europe and has generally 

 been told that such is not the case, but that colds begin only in the spring when 

 the windows are first opened. As an experiment he once spent five days in 

 Stockholm in December with windows closed (and remained perfectly well), but 

 one comparatively warm night opened the window and heaped blankets on his 

 bed as in England. The next evening a bad cold commenced. 



Englishmen complain that rooms in Northern Europe are stuffy, but this may 

 possibly be a mere auto-suggestion. Personally the writer prefers the Continental 

 system— one is warm all the time in the house, and when one goes out one can 

 brave the outside cold in a thick coat without having been previously thoroughly 

 chilled in the house. But these few notes do not by any means conclude the 

 arguments on either side. The matter ought to be much more carefully discussed, 

 especially in view of the fact that the British domestic coal-bill is something 

 enormous, probably equal to that of the British liquor bill, and the war ought to 

 compel us to pay proper attention to such details. We are by no means certain 

 that the British method is the correct one, but neither are we certain that the 

 foreign view is better. At all events, the British nation is at present in this 

 matter in a minority of one. There is no denying the fact that the open English 

 fire is more cheerful than the Continental grate ; but just look at the price we 

 have to pay for it ! 



The Bread and Food Keform League 



On July 4 this League held a Conference in the Queen's Hall on the National 

 Importance of Utilising Whole Cereals in Time of War, with Sir James Crichton 

 Browne, M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S., in the chair. The Secretary, Miss May Yates, 

 opened the meeting by a few able introductory remarks in which she stated that 

 the League has been in existence for thirty-five years and has made progress to 

 the extent of inducing the Blue Coat Schools, amongst other institutions, to adopt 

 the principle of feeding their children on unadulterated bread — considerably to the 

 improvement of their health. The Chairman then set himself to prove that the 

 white bread so largely consumed in Britain is both deleterious and wasteful. 

 The millers, in abstracting the outer coating of the grain and resorting to 

 bleaching processes, really remove the health-giving properties of the flour, as 

 it is just this outer covering that contains the vitamines, the germ, and what is 

 technically known as " patents." Nothing more is gained by this bleaching 

 than a pleasing appearance, while the loss in nutrition is considerable. But 

 wheat, he said, is not the only cereal that suffers degeneration at the hands of the 

 millers, for barley and rice also share the same fate. The tropical disease of 

 beri-beri, he stated, had been proved by men of science to be due to the con- 

 sumption by the natives of polished rice, and had been largely reduced when 

 coolies were induced to nourish themselves on the unpolished variety. The 

 only cereal that had defied the arts of man was oats, as it was found impossible 

 to remove anything from it owing to its hard and gritty nature ; so that he 

 deplored the fact that oatmeal, in his opinion, largely responsible for the hardi- 

 ness of the Scottish peasant and the quality of the English racehorse, should be 

 so neglected in England as a human food. He also denied the truth of the 

 popular ideas that oatmeal is heating and fit only for the poor. Now in time of 

 war, when the general need for economy was felt, it was still more incumbent on 

 the country to insist on the best use being made of its foodstuffs. If the source 



