Bad milk makes Montreal’s child mortality world’s worst

Friday, 02 July 2010 05:00

One hundred years ago, clippings from the newspapers of July 2, 1910.

Montreal Star. “Out of every three children born in Montreal two die before they reach the age of five,” proclaims the headline in an advertisement by Truro Condensed Milk Company for its canned Jersey Cream Brand Evaporated Milk.

“Montreal’s death rate among children is the highest in the civilized world,” says the ad. “Since 1890, the infant mortality has averaged 59% of total deaths. Of all the deaths of children under 18 months, 75% are those of bottle-fed babies.”

The ad quotes a speech by a Dr. Hastings to the Canadian Medical Association (June 10, 1908):

“If the truth were known, 15,000 of the 30,000 children who die annually in Canada might justly have the epitaph, ‘Poisoned by Impure Milk,’ placed on their gravestones.”

“Jersey Cream Evaporated Milk is free from disease germs,” the company claims, posing none of raw milk’s risk of tubercular or typhoid infection. The milk is canned at factories in Truro, Nova Scotia, and Huntingdon, Quebec.

SPEEDING DOCTORS
Toronto Star. People needing emergency medical help are now rushed in ambulances with sirens wailing to doctors at the nearest hospital. A century ago it was the doctors who rushed to the patients. And in Toronto, if those doctors who had traded in their horse and buggy for an automobile rushed too fast, they were liable to get a speeding ticket, like any other motorist.

Despite contrary reports, no instructions have been given to the police to ignore “medical men exceeding the speed limit when answering urgent professional calls,” Deputy Police Chief Stark tells the Star. “The public are being misled and the medical profession probably enticed into trouble through statements to the effect that such instructions have been issued.”

Stark questioned the wisdom of allowing policemen to discriminate in favour of doctors among speeding drivers; said it would be impossible for a policemen to determine whether a fast driver is a doctor answering an emergency call; and derided a proposal that police follow a speeding doctor to his destination and accept the physician’s statement of the need for rush, calling the idea “too silly to be even humourous.”

As some consolation, Stark said no magistrate had ever convicted a speeding doctor who could establish that “he was answering an urgent call.” For busy, overworked doctors, however, considerable time spent for a court appearance might be worse than the cost of a speeding ticket.

BABY DRUGS
Winnipeg Free Press. “Many dope fiends contracted the drug habit in the cradle,” warns an ad for Nayls Soothing Syrup. “Certain dangerous drugs were given to them in the form of ‘soothing syrup,’ ‘colic cure’ and ‘infants’ friends.’ The harmful effect of soothers containing opium, morphine, chloral [a sedative and hypnotic drug, sometimes mixed with alcohol to prepare a Mickey Finn] etc., cannot be too strongly stated.”

The ad advises parents not to “give baby a soother unless you positively must,” and then, of course, only Nayls, which is said to contain no opiates and “does not put on soft, flabby flesh, making the little folks victims of childish disease.” Nayls surup is said to “induce natural healthy sleep” and calm “mother’s tired nerves.”

RHEUMATISM CURE
Windsor Record. “Captain Roland of Port Arthur [now Thunder Bay], who was lost in the northern wilds for over a month and sustained life on water and poplar leafs, was quite rheumatic when he strayed from his party, but all traces of the ailment have disappeared. Here is a hint to those similarly afflicted. The remedy is heroic but effectual.”

NIGHTTIME SKINNY DIPPING
Lindsay Post (July 1). An Ops Township bylaw bans daylight swimming without proper attire, but would appear to leave the door open for nighttime skinny dipping. The bylaw, reports the Post, reads: “That no person shall bathe in the river, creeks or ponds of water within this corporation during the daytime, without wearing a proper bathing dress sufficient to prevent any indecent expose of person.” There appears to be no mention of nighttime bathing, clothed or nude.