A STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2723, 18 March 1916, Page 7

A STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

Sir,—ln your issue of March 11 I Bee it reported that the New South Wales Minister of Education has insti- ; gated theinstalling of peiiny-in-the-slot machines in the schools to supply siveets to -the children. The Minister is evidently not aware of the: strenuous efforts which are being made by Professor Pickerill, of Dunedin, and Dr. Sim Wallace and other eminent dentists in England and other countries, to tench the public that sweet-oating isthe chief oause of decay of teeth, and is largely responsible-for much : digestive disorder in children. . Sir William Osier, one of the greatest living - authorities in medicine, wheu asked whether he thought' alcohol or sweet-eating caused the greatest human misery, replied undoubtedly sweet-eat-ing. "That 'the oweets are made from the best materials makes no difference, the pernicious substance being sugar. Sugar is an artificial produot, 1 and is nowhere found as such in nature, hut combined with vegetable and fruit acids. If the slot-machines supplied the school- ■ children with ' fruit, especially apples, thn benefit would ho incalculable. •' For over ten years a diet excluding artificially separated sugar t has heen followed In certain schools in England, ' each meal commencing and with raw apples, arid the results havo. been absolutely perfect, beyond all expectation. In New' Zealand, where dental decay has become such a colossal jnenace to' the health- of - the race, isurely we would .do well to take notice'of these proven rules of diet instead of teaching our chil&en' the direct opposite, as is now being done by the Minister <)f Education in Newv South Wales. I look forward to the day when sweetshops as well as P.rofi-shops will be naticnally prohibited.—l am, etc., _ •; EDGAR H. WILKINS, M.B. Pongaroa.