THE INSPIRING MOTIVE

The enthusiasm excited by a persistent study of the problem of human nutrition is inspired by the need of an intelligent scheme of information and instruction which may be understood by mothers and teachers for the benefit of children. Unlike the young of the lower animals, the babes of mankind have some years of dependent existence during which much unconscious murder is committed, and during which the innocents are more or less poisoned with bad suggestions that weaken them all through life. Colts, calves, pigs, chickens, and the like survive the period of dependence in much greater proportion than do the young of their human masters survive the infantile stage of existence, and this is largely due to the lack of basic or parent knowledge on the part of mothers relative to their own nutrition, and also a pitiable ignorance concerning the nutrition of their children, the double ignorance constituting a double crime.

Even if careless about ourselves, is it not shameful that we do not concentrate effort in learning the truth about our instinctive means of protection in our own alimentation and in classifying the knowledge in a way that will make it available to children, through their proper guardians, when they arrive in the world "as helpless as a babe"?

If knowledge which seems to be protective had not been evolved out of recent experiment, or if the hope of gaining such knowledge had not been collected from good authority, the appeal might seem futile; but this is not the case. The most intelligent and studious investigators are united in the belief that the problem can be scientifically solved and the confusion of ideas settled by concentrated personal and collective study of economic nutrition, through observation of the natural requirements, and by trial of the care in taking food which is necessary to secure the most profitable economies.

ILLUSTRATION

Here is an illustration, both of the present need of better knowledge and the hope of its attainment. It is an account of one accidental experience which showed that excess of food may be as detrimental to a tiny baby dependant, as it is generally conceded to be harmful to grown persons. The case was described by Dr. Chadwick of Boston to Professor Bowditch, and by the latter repeated to the author. An infant was not progressing as it should and failed to gain normally in weight. It was under the charge of a nurse and was being carefully watched. A certain quantity of milk was prescribed for daily nourishment, at prescribed times, in a prescribed manner; but the child did not increase in weight and was "doing poorly." For some reason the nurse was changed and instructions were repeated by the old to the new nurse. In the course of a week the little patient showed signs of marked improvement, both in gain of weight and in general condition. In order to record the particulars of the change the physician questioned the nurse and learned that only one half the nourishment originally prescribed had been given, the new nurse having forgotten or misunderstood the orders.

The reason the little fellow had been "doing so poorly" under the original prescription was because he had been using up his puny strength getting rid of the excess of food that had been forced upon his little stomach and intestines. When the excess was stopped, so that his digestive apparatus could occupy itself with his real needs, the babe had a surplus of energy for growth and thrived as a rightly nourished child should do.

Note: In connection with the foregoing, reference is invited to the author's conception of how attention to one's personal economies, beginning with the economy of personal nutrition, is interrelated to general menticulture and the child-saving phase of our personal responsibility in child culture. Even if we are carelessly suicidal ourselves, we owe better care to innocent and dependent children. This will be found in the "Explanation of the A. B. C. Life Series" at the end of the book.