398 



ISIDOE GKEENWALD 



and temperate population. Milk was largely used as a food, and the ex- 

 cess of production was placed on the market. In the course of vears the 

 communities gradually established central creameries in which the fat is 

 withdrawn from the milk by means of centrifugal machines to produce 

 cream and butter. The impoverished milk is partly returned to the farm- 

 ers. The milk producers are paid in cash for their product, but a poor 

 and insufficient food now takes the place of a former healthy one. The 

 money now goes to the saloons. The potato conquers a new territory. In- 

 stead of the butter which was formerly used, cheap fats are now bought; 

 in short, the change in diet is exactly such as we find with the poorer 

 working population in the cities. The effects are exactly the same. Physi- 

 cal deterioration in such districts becomes more and more pronounced, 

 reaching finally a low level. This is a very serious condition, which at- 

 tracts attention and which must be combated by all possible means." 



A similar effect seems to have been produced, in a rather different 

 manner, in our own southern states. Formerly the corn was ground in 

 small mills and all of it was used. Now much of it is sold for cash and 

 ; 'new process" or degerminated meal is purchased. It is quite possible that 

 the present high freight rates will have one good result in encouraging 

 diversified farming and the home production of more of the necessary 

 food. 



Indirectly, the improvement of transportation and the development 

 of industry as a whole have helped to change food habits because of the 

 improvement in economic condition. It is to this that we must ascribe 

 the increased consumption of meat and fat in Germany arid Belgium, and 

 the gradual change from rye to wheat bread. The tendency to copy the 

 diet of the wealthier classes is everywhere marked. The nature of this 

 diet is determined largely by taste and fashion. The wealthier can, and 

 do, secure for themselves the foods which have the more agreeable taste, 

 and others, as soon as they can afford them, also wish to secure these 

 foods for themselves. But taste will not alone explain the relative order 

 of esteem in which foods are held. At one time shad, oysters and lobsters 

 were so plentiful along the eastern coast of the United States as to be 

 despised. To-day, they are delicacies. Diminishing supply may be re- 

 sponsible for this but not for all similar instances. Not all rare edible 

 articles are highly esteemed foods. Nightingale tongues and peacock 

 breast are no longer prized as they were in imperial Rome. Again, it is 

 not so many years ago since calf thymus glands could be. had at New 

 York slaughter houses for the asking. To-day they are the expensive 

 sweetbreads. That complex of varying influences that we call fashion has 

 helped determine man's food habits as it has his other social practices. 

 (See also Fairchild.) 



Canned foods, while adding tremendously to the variety of foods avail- 

 able, have, to the extent that they have replaced fresh food, tended to re- 



