We know from experience that the prolonged use of cooked food to the entire exclusion of uncooked foods is invariably attended with impairment of the health and strength, and we are specially well acquainted with the ailment of infantile scurvy or Barlow's disease, so called after Sir Thomas Barlow, who first clearly recognised and denned it. The victims of this disease are pale and anaemic, suffer from extreme muscular weakness, on account of the tenderness of their lower limbs, cry loudly when much handled, and display sub-periosteal extravasations of blood and other evidences of escape of blood from the circulation. There is a general consensus of opinion that this condition is produced by the use of cow's milk which is not perfectly fresh or has been subjected to the action of heat. Whatever changes have taken place - whether some occult or yet unisolated substance has been driven off or the lactic acid bacilli have been destroyed - it is quite certain that the milk has lost something to which it owes its indispensable qualities of freshness. To bring about a speedy recovery it is only necessary to use fresh milk, although this may be supplemented by raw meat juice or fruit juices, all of which possess anti-scorbutic properties in a high degree. In any case, raw food of some easily assimilable kind must be administered before the cure can be completed.

An analogous condition of affairs is sometimes seen in adults suffering from typhoid fever, who are kept too long on gruel, broths, or other cooked foods, and the addition of fresh fruit juices, such as oranges, or of whey, or even buttermilk, may be relied upon to counteract this malign influence.