CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14987, 6 June 1914, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

TO TB-K EDITOR OF "THE rBBSS." Sir, —Tho reports which appear in your paper from time to time frbin doctors and dentists regarding .the health and particularly the unsatisfactory state of children's teeth, are increasingly saddening. A while hack dentists reported that seventy-five per cent, of tho children's teeth were bad, but now Dr. Cawkwell states there are ninety-five per cent., while Dr. Bertram states that of all the Torritorials ho had examined only one had a sound 6et of teeth! The trouble is alarmingly increasing, notwithstanding all the expert endeavours of the medical profession and the external tinkering-up by the dentist, which should make people, and especially parents, think and look for the cause or causes; for p cause thero must undoubtedly be for such an abnormal and unnatural state of things. Dt. Cawkwell says "too many children eat nothing but pastry, Bread and jam, and that mothers do not give their children the right food prepared in the right way." Now, I think there is a lot of truth in what the doctor says. There is a deficiency of the right kinds | of food such as porridge, milk, vegetables, etc., but the most serious fault lies in the innutritious quality of the white bread and other articles made from the current starchy bleached roller whito flour. If parents would use — for it is with them this reform must begin—and give their children bread and other foods mado from pure whole meal flour with only the bran removed, we should see, other things being equal, before a decade or two bad passed, a general improvement compared to the present eer'ous state of things. Dr. Leonard Hill, the lecturer on physiology at tho Xondon Hospital Medical School, with Dr. Martin "Flack, after making elaborate experiments on tame rate and mice for the purpose of ascertaining the relative nutritive value of white flonr and bread with that of fthe "standard" flour and bread, which had only the outer bran removed, was ro Profoundly impressed with the results that ho stated emphatically that all children in England ~particu"larlv those wno could not get sufficient * milk. should certainly be given the Ftanda-d bread.—Yours, etc.. W. CROWF..