On diet and disease : with special reference to the teeth, lunghs, and pre-natal feeding [delivered to the Mid-Cheshire Division, November 12th, 1925] / [Edward Mellanby].

  • Mellanby, Edward, Sir, 1884-1955
Date:
[1925?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On diet and disease : with special reference to the teeth, lunghs, and pre-natal feeding [delivered to the Mid-Cheshire Division, November 12th, 1925] / [Edward Mellanby]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A Hirittslj jUfoMral .Assoriaticrn Wtctnxt ON DIET AND DISEASE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE TEETH, LUNGS, AND PRE-NATAL FEEDING.* Eighteen months ago I delivered a British Medical Asso¬ ciation Lecture at Bradford1** in which I discussed the subject I was actively investigating at the time—namely, the part played by modern dietary in the production of disease as found in this country. I should not have chosen the same subject for this evening’s discourse were it not that it is still being intensively investigated all over the world, with results that only emphasize its importance. Modern experimental work on animals, backed up by clinical observation, has brought to light the fact that the dietary of the people of this country is defective in two important respects: (1) that it includes too little of the substances which contain fat-soluble vitamins, and (2) that it contains relatively too much cereal. Each of these dietetic mistakes tends, among other things, to bring about a certain pathological defect of structure and function in the body, so that their combined influence in this respect is very great and produces widespread disability.la> E c For instance, one of the fundamental effects of a fat-soluble vitamin is to stimulate calcification of bones and teeth, while, on the other hand, excess of cereal in the diet inter¬ feres with the calcification of these organs. It can be imagined, therefore, how potent must be the destructive action on developing bones and teeth of a diet deficient in calcifying vitamin and containing an excess of cereal. The meagreness of the sunshine in this country and its poor quality so far as ultra-violet radiations are concerned only serve to make matters worse; for, arising from the observations of Huldschinsky2 on the effect of ultra-violet radiations on the calcification of bones of rachitic children, we now know that deficiency of antirachitic vitamin in the diet can be made up to some extent by exposure of the body to ultra-violet light, while I have shown elsewhere that excess of cereal in the diet, which interferes with bone calcification, can also be antagonized by exposure to these rays.lc To-night I propose to return once more to the same subject, and, by other illustrations of the action of these * Delivered to the Mid-Cheshire Division, November 12th, 1925. [99/26]