52 MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 



related to the type of diet in some degree because the fundamental basis 

 of enterprise, aggressiveness, achievement, is physiological well being. I 

 will not dilate any further on that subject because part of it would be 

 conclusions which we would necessarily base on very skimpy evidence. 

 We must make a very thorough study of this problem before we draw 

 positive conclusions on this. 



"Now, there is a third type of diet which succeeds with animals and 

 men ; that is, the diet which is derived from cereals, from tubers, edible 

 roots, meat, more or less leaves and more or less dairy products, and that 

 is the best type of diet we know of. When we maintain one series of 

 groups of experimental animals on carniverous diet, and another series 

 in which a leaf enters partly as diet; another diet in which milk and its 

 products enter freely; and diets which are comparable in every respect, 

 but which contain none of those three things ; by observing those animals 

 throughout their span of life, we find the diets are faulty when they fail 

 to contain either leaf or milk, unless strongly of carniverous origin. 



"When we observe our animals throughout their span of life, we find 

 that faulty diets lead to a failure to grow and reach adult size ; to failure 

 in reproduction, to high mortality and early death. By introducing such 

 foods as leaves and milk, (foods which I came to designate about a year 

 and a half ago, talking to the American Economic Association at Atlantic 

 City, as corrective foods, because they correct whatever else we are liable 

 to eat because they consist of the essentials), whenever we introduce an 

 abundance of milk or leaf, we cure or correct the diet of these animals ; 

 prolong their life ; increase their size and their capacity for reproduction ; 

 reduce their infant mortality ; and prolong the period of vigor and main- 

 tenance of youthful characteristics. All these things correlate well with 

 our study of human experience. 



"May I say at this point that there are three substances which we 

 have not yet discovered, the chemical nature of which we do not know, 

 which are occasionally absent from the diet of men to an extent that leads 

 to the production of three deficiency diseases. Most important of these 

 is a disease known as beri-beri. It is common among Orientals in China. 

 India, in the Philippines; very common on the East Coast of South 

 America, and parts of Brazil. They have it now in Labrador and New- 

 foundland. It is a deficiency disease due to a lack of a- practically un- 

 known substance which is lacking from certain diets. The chief char- 

 acteristic of this condition is a general paralysis. The people in Labrador 

 live essentially on a white bread diet and fish, and very little else a 

 certain amount of meat perhaps. The people of Newfoundland live on a 

 diet of bread and fish and salt meat and a little raisin duff, month after 

 month. They develop this condition of paralysis and go to the hospital 



