525 
WHEAT PHOSPHATES. 
The following is a communication from Dr. Tilbury Fox to the ‘Medical Times and 
Gazette’ of March 17th 
Several years ago, I became aware that Dr. Hake had suggested to Messrs. Bullock 
and Reynolds the production of a preparation containing the organized chemical pro¬ 
ducts residing in the outer layers of the wheat grain, believing that they probably 
would be found to possess peculiar nutritive qualities. In the year 1862, in a paper 
read before the Obstetrical Society of London, I drew particular attention to the good 
effects observed to follow from its use. During the last few years I have continued to 
prescribe the wheat phosphates , as the preparation is named, with great success, and feel 
so confident of its virtues that I strongly recommend it to the profession in general. 
Whilst the subject of infants’ food has, on account of prolific inventions and sugges¬ 
tions, become rather a bore, the tendency of refinement has been in the wrong direction, 
and very nice-looking products, pleasing to the eye, hut useless for nutrition, have been 
obtained. The various forms of infants’ food are in the great majority of instances 
simply and purely starch, the central portions of the cereals consisting entirely of the 
latter product; these foods do not deserve the name of, and are not, flours; to call them 
flours is nothing more or less than fraud. Now, inasmuch as the starchy element is not 
the assimilative nor the flesh-forming, but the heat and fat-producing principle, all our 
past efforts in securing a nice white flour have been antagonistic to the possession of 
nutritive material, and actually the very desirable part of the grain contained in the 
bran—viz. the organized phosphates and other principles, have been deliberately rejected. 
Seconds flour makes a much more wholesome bread than that of the first quality. 
The importance of a due supply of phosphates in health and disease has been fully 
recognized at the present day, and as a result we now possess various pyro-, super-, and 
hypo-phosphates and -phites. 
My experience teaches me that there is something essentially special in the organized 
phosphates—those, in fact, ivhich have been formed by passing through a living organism 
(in nature’s own laboratory)—as compared with artificially prepared phosphates. It is 
not the amount, but the kind exhibited that produces the good result. No simple mix¬ 
ture is in any way a substitute. It is not at all unlikely that the cerealin, of which 
little is known, but which is associated with the phosphates in the bran, and has an 
action similar to pepsin, may conduce to the beneficial result. A similar kind of action 
is observed in those cases where quinine fails, but decoction of bark instantly succeeds. 
The organized phosphates I speak of aid the assimilative function, and I find that ordi¬ 
nary foods are digested, and even medicines—for example, iron when given in combi¬ 
nation—act most efficiently after they have previously failed alone. The same is the 
case with ordinary food in weak digestions. Many of the “ foods ” recommended are 
really animal in character—such are the extracts of meat. ^Nature distinctly points to 
the agent now under notice as a preferable aid, in virtue of its vegetable origin. The 
wheat phosphates, too, contain the desirable properties of brown bread without the 
objectionable ones, viz. the cuticle and husk. 
The mode of preparation is simply to make a decoction of well-selected bran, carefully 
evaporate in a Avater bath, mix the residue with sugar, and reduce to powder. It may 
be used in the place of sugar, a teaspoonful or less being added two or three times a dav 
to the child’s food. The cases in which its use is chiefly indicated are those amongst 
the young, in whom the assimilative function is at fault. I can speak very strongly in 
cases which belong to my own particular speciality—diseases of the skin. Eruptive 
diseases of the scalp in infants are most frequently associated with faulty assimilation. 
Here the wheat phosphates act marvellously well. But in rickets, in marasmus, chronic 
diarrhoea, and impaired nutrition of all kinds, I believe them to be most invaluable 
adjuncts. Pallid children pick up tone, colour, and flesh; worms disappear; intestinal 
irritation subsides ; the secretions become healthy; and disease goes. I lay great stress 
on the phosphates under notice, in their character as organized products , as greatly^ help¬ 
ing assimilation of food and medicinal agents, and believe them to be the most preferable 
form of phosphates, especially for the young. 
