UNPLEASANT REVELATIONS RESPECTING "NUTRITIOUS" FOOD. (Manchester Examiner, June 10.)

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 363, 10 September 1874, Page 2

UNPLEASANT REVELATIONS RESPECTING "NUTRITIOUS" FOOD. (Manchester Examiner, June 10.)

It was this gentleman (Mr BartletC) who was examined on Monday, and who maintained the literal «ecnrtcy of what he had written. He remarked that Indian corn has a great quantity of flesh and bone forming matter, and is therefore a iood of high value ; but these " flours," he insisted, coriltin at most " 33 grains of nitrogenous or nutritious matter out of a pound o!" 7000 grains, in which there should be SOO or 900 grains of nutritions matter." It would thus seem that the manufacturer largely expends his skill in extracting the nutritious properties from the natural product, in order to throw them away. In some eases, we are assured, the nitrogenous portion of the corn is washed out with a weak lye of caustic sodu, tho starch being carefully presened, while the nutritious parts go to feed the pigs ! Small consolation is ta be derived from the statement that these flours form a gelatinous matter, because we are told in the same breath that the experiment of feeding a dog wholly on gelatine led to> the unfortunate animal's dettb. Indeed, Mrßartlett aiscrted that cases of human starvation have been known to occur from the same cause. The witness quoted from a recent work of Dr Lunkester, " who had given a testimonial to these foods" in these terms ; " Most of the deaths from hand-feeding under >ix months old arise fioin the use of corn flour, arrowroot, baked, flour, and other kind* of starchy food, which contain no nutritive qualities." Standing alone, this evidence is overwhelming, but, unfortunately for the nnxiou3 Beckcr after truth, the next witness openly dissented from it. This was Mr Francis Sulton, F.C.S., the public unalyst for the county of Norfolk. Mr Sutton pronounced corn* flour "fairly good food," and generally regarded adul-U-iution as a dimimshhig if not a trivial e*\l. There is the proverbial difficulty in this ease of deciding where the doctor* differ, and we trust that additional evidence will be procured by the Committee until its specific gravity on one side or the. other shall lelieve the popular mind oi its present dire mil' givings. At any rate it is something to know that however bud things now arc, a real improvement has taken place of late ■years.