rove that I can) the Government
should be willing to arrange for the production of such foods in
connection with every military hospital and convalescent camp, both
here at home and behind the lines in Europe. Moreover, given a
central experimental station with proper equipment, it would be an
easy matter to train men to teach this knowledge to soldiers at
every reconstruction camp.
The statement is made by Dr. Mae H. Cardwell, of Portland, Oregon,
one of the investigators for the Federal Children's Bureau that
millions of children are suffering from lack of sufficient food and
from improper feeding, and she adds that not only the parents but
the doctors, in many cases, need education with respect to what
constitutes proper feeding for children. I think that when you have
read and digested my statement of the function of the mineral salts
in the human economy, you will agree with me that the need for just
what I am asking the government to give me an opportunity of doing
is very great indeed.
I trust that I may count upon your co-operation, not only in
getting this matter before the proper officials, but also in seeing
that an opportunity for a fair demonstration is accorded me.
The dissemination of this knowledge and the production of such
foods would make America the ALMA MATER of the world in scientific
nutrition, thanks to the application of physiological chemistry. As
things are now done in agriculture and in aviculture, however, very
little can be expected along this line.
I will give you two concrete illustrations of what can be done in
the way of augmenting the mineral content of food, and then I will
point out the significance of that fact. We will consider eggs:
ordinarily 100 grams of egg yolk contains from 10 to 20 milligrams
of iron, but eggs laid by hens fed by my method yield from 30 to 80
milligrams of iron per 100 grams of dried yolk. This is an
increase, as you see, of between 300 and 400 per cent. Such eggs
might be justly classed as haemoglobin eggs, and they would be a
godsend to our boys suffering from anaemia due to wounds or
operations. At the same time, my method of handling chickens
greatly enriches the lecithin, or nerve substance, in the eggs, and
they are, therefore, of special value in dealing with cases of
|