BREAD AND JAM DIET.
DOCTOR’S WARNING TO WOMEN.
The fact that women by working in factories and congested offices and not eating sufficiently are liable to contract tuberculosis is commented upon by the medical superintendent of the Greenvale Sanatorium (Dr. Brown), in a report to the Minister for Health (Mr. McLeod).
Owing to the inadequate water supply at Greenvale, the Minister is considering the advisableness of transferring the institution to Mont Park, and returns showing what the cost of carrying out the proposal would be are now being prepared.
In his report Dr. Brown states that, from observation of conditions,surrounding work by women, he had gathered that most female patients admitted to the sanatorium had been unsuitably dieted “prior to coming under treatment.
The majority had been engaged in domestic duties. Young women engaged in offices and factories required good substantial meals, comprising soups, meats, and vegetables, both at midday and evening.
The practice of female employees eating bread and jam or butter, also pastry, in stuffy offices and workrooms was common, and was to be deplored from the ill health which eventually followed.
Many of these, in their haste to attend some place of amusement, and for various reasons; often neglected to have a substantial meal in the, evening.
Legislation might be directed in time towards compelling all employers of women to provide at a cheap rate hot substantial meals about noon.
Women in factories or offices, when improperly fed, were prone to develop tuberculosis, and in order to prevent as far as possible the spread of the complaint, good food, as well as healthy surroundings, were an essential factor.
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