34 T. P. ANDERSON STUART. 



seventy pounds of carbohydrates and that bread is one penny 

 farthing per pound, carbohydrate foods, which are absolutely 

 indispensable in some form or other, are now as cheap in the form 

 of sugar as in that of bread. It is true that bread contains also 

 the nitrogenous elements of food, but these in Australia are 

 generally preferred in the form of butcher's meat, which is cheap 

 enough and copiously indulged in. This new position of sugar in 

 the dietary of the people is of far reaching importance and quite 

 a thing of our own times. My recollections do not go back so 

 very far, yet only thirty years ago as a boy I was permitted to 

 have either milk or sugar to my porridge, but not both, for the 

 then costly sugar was regarded as a pure condiment and there- 

 fore a luxury, to be sparingly administered, so as not to spoil the 

 child. This, I may add, was in Scotland. 



The difference between sugar as a sweetener and sugar as a 

 food has been much emphasised by the discovery of " saccharin," 

 a complex derivative of the coal tar products, and which is some 

 three hundred times as sweet as sugar, but of no value as a food 

 stuff, if its continuous use, indeed, be not positively injurious. 

 Some time ago it was stated that the German authorities had 

 prepared large quantities of "saccharin" tablets for issue to the 

 soldiers instead of sugar : if this were done the blunder was a 

 curious one for a people who claimed that their soldiers' diet was 

 prepared on scientific principles. They substituted for a valuable 

 food a sweetening substance not only with no sustaining power, 

 but which may have serious effects when taken continuously. 



SUMMARY OF THE SOCIETY'S PROGRESS DURING THE PAST YEAR. 



I have now to summarise the principal events connected with 

 the Society's position and progress during the year. At the end 

 of a period of twelve months during the whole of which there has 

 existed an unexampled depression in trade, leading to universally 

 diminished incomes, it would be indeed strange if this Society had 

 alone escaped the general fate. And it has not escaped. The 

 income of the Society has been smaller, but then expenditure has 

 been curtailed so that the Council has had to do, what everybody 



