Zurich Herald, 1956-02-16, Page 2TABLE TALKS
teeteesesteeel Via A ll .
''`This meat dish is not only
detectable to taste, but it also
emits an appetizing fragrance
while cooking," writes Mrs,
Mary Foster, of her Swedish
ham balls. "I want to share this
bit of goodness with the ladies
and men who like to don kitchen
aprons and lend a helping
band."
Swedish slam Balls
1 pound ground smoked ham
1% pounds ground pork
2 cups bread crumbs
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup milk
11/4 cups brown sugar
1,4 cup vinegar
ifs cup water
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Combine sugar, vinegar, wa-
ter, and mustard. Stir until
sugar is dissolved. Combine
meat, bread crumbs, eggs, and
milk. Mix thoroughly. Form in
small balls. Place in pan and
pour first mixture over balls.
Bake in slow oven. The balls
may be basted and turned.
Two types of marshmallow
fluff were sent in by readers of
The Christian Science Monitor
in response to a request, one a
pudding and the other a regular
Ruff. Here is one of each type.
Mrs, Eunice Benjamin, sent this
one which she says she has
found satisfactory and which
keeps indefinitely. It makes 4
cups.
MARSHMALLOW FLUFF
2 cups white corn sirup
2 egg „whites
J/s teaspoon salt
le teaspoon vanilla
Cook corn sirup over medium
heat until a small amount will
form a soft ball in cold water,
Beat egg whites, salt, and va-
nilla until stiff. Add hot sirup
in 4 parts, beating after each
addition. As mixture becomes
stiff, use a wooden spoon. For
eater mixture, add hot water.
* *
"Any frozen fruit, thawed and
poured over this fluff is deli-
cious," says Linda V. Wendt, of
her pudding -type fluff,
* *
MARSHMALLOW
FLUFF PUDDING
?A teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
2 tablespoons milk
134 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
4 cups miniature marshmal-
lows
Soften gelatin in water and
dissolve over hot water. Add
milk sugar and almond extract.
Fold gelatin mixture into
TODAY — No spaceman, he. The
mask protects this maintenance
worker at Air Force Base from
bitter winter gales as he keeps
road facilities open with his
road grader.
whipped cream, Next, fold
marshmallows into the mixture.
Pour into one large mold or into
individual molds, Chill in refri-
gerator 2-3 hours,
*
*
Many fudge recipes came in
response to a Canadian reader's
call. Some called for corn sirep,
some for marshmallow creme,
some beat the candy as soon as
it was cooked, others allowed it
to cool before beating. "Twenty
minutes from start to finish," is
said to be the time required for
making one recipe for fudge,
sent by Mrs. Mary Klinedinst.
"Those eating my fudge say it's
the best, and I've been making
and sharing it for 35 years," she
writes.
TWENTY -MINUTE FUDGE
3 cups sugar
? s pound butter
Se cup milk
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons marshmallow
whip
Combine sugar, butter, cocoa,
and milk. Boil, stirring, until it
reaches the soft ball stage. Stir
in the marshmallow whip. Stir
until creamy and pour into but,
tered pan.
* * x
A recipe for drop fudge was
sent by Mrs. E. E. Wall. "This
fudge is easy to make and is
the most delicious I've' ever
eaten," Mrs. Wall writes. "When
I serve it there are always re-
quests for the recipe."
Fudge
274 cups sugar
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
34 cup white corn sirup
34 pint cream
34 pound butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
Combine sugar, cocoa, sirup,
and cream. Cook to soft ball
stage (238° F.) When done, add
butter and vanilla. Let stand
until cold, then beat and add
nuts if desired. Drop by tea-
spoonfuls on greased paper.
* *
Giblet Gravy
If you prefer giblet gravy
to the cream type for fried
chicken here's the way to make
it according to Mrs. Alberta
Sandford, who writes: "My
mother taught me to make this
gravy when serving fried chick-
en. It is especially useful if no
one in the family likes the neck
or giblets. Boil in salted water
to cover the tipe ends of wings,
the neck and giblets. Pour off
liquid and use for gravy mak-
ing. Cut up giblets and add."
*
For Fried Fish
If you aren't a stickler for
rolling your fried fish in corn
meal, try this suggestion: "Roll
your fish in pancake flour next
time you fry it," writes Geneva
Eldredge. "The pancake flour
improves the flavor and gives
the fish a delightful brown."
A Man's Dish
Unless you've collaborated
with a squirrel under the con-
ditions described below, you
haven't eaten a real Brunswick
stew yet ! Start it off this way :
1 small can corn (6 ears); 1 pint
lima beans; 4 potatoes; 1 onion;
1 quart sliced tomatoes; 3 tea-
spoon sugar; ee ib. butter; 1 tea-
spoon salt; 1 teaspoon pepper.
Clean squirrels (two or three of
them) and cut into pieces. To
four quarts of boiling water,
add salt, minced onion, beans,
corn, potatoes, squirrels and
pepper. Cover and simmer for
two hours. Add sugar and toma-
toes. Simmer an additional
hour, Add butter. Simmer ten
minutes, bring to boil, and re-
move from fire, Add additional
salt and pepper to suit taste.
Brother, she's good 1
CHAIRING NEWS -- History repeated itself at the George Adiard
home when two -and -a -half -year-old Gail, left, got her head
wedged in the back of a child's rocking chair. Mrs. Adiard knew
lust what to do. hive years ago sister Terry, now seven, had a
similar mishap with an identical rocker, Not knowing what to
4o at the time, Mrs. Adiard caped her husband home from
work. He freed Terry by sawing. out the back slat. So when Gail
got stuck, her mother just ran for the trusty saw. Above, the
sisters. show there is no more danger in putting their heads
through the Chair backs.
"COME TO ME" -- The lady eager, at right, isn't longing for
"Mr. Basketball." She just wants to snatch her opponent ball -
headed. Obsecured by the ball is the pretty face "of Erlanger
Hospital's Nurse Jaynet Pruiett, playing in a Civic League game.
SchooI Health
Examina fions
in the February issue of that
exceedingly interesting maga..
sine "CORONET," there is a
thought-provoking article en-
titled "The Sham of School
Health Examinations" by Wale
ter A. Garden, Director of the
Division of Physical Welfare
in Paterson, New Jersey. While
the conditions described do not
exist everywhere, some of the
facts brought out seem to be
worthy of widespread attention.
* * $
Toward the end of the sum-
mer, a five-year-old New ' Jer-
sey child began to complain of
etomach pains. He seemed tired,,..
listless and unhappy.
"Ought to take him to a doc-
tor," the boy's father said.
His mother agreed, but add-
ed, "Let's wait. He'll have a
medical examination before he
starts kindergarten."
A few weeks later the child,
along with other kindergarten-
ers, was examined. "Nothing
the matter," the doctor report-
ed. "Just see that he has plenty
of fresh air, rest and affection.
Don't give him any sweets be-
tween meals. He'll be all right."
The parents paid little atten-
tion} after that to the boy's con-
stant whining, his stomach up-
sets and listlessness. Not un-
til two years later did they fin-
ally take him to the family doc-
tor. There they hear a frighten-
ing diagnosis; cancer of the
stomach!
Fortunately the cancer could
still be treated successfully, but
the parents looked back bitterly
on all the time their son had
had to suffer pain and unde-
served scoldings.
Too late, thousands of un-
happy parents are realizing the
shocking truth about school
medical examinations. Medical
and educational authorities con-
demn the situation as a national
disgrace.
Though we are spending $30,-
000,000 a year for school exam-
inations, conservative medical
estimates indicate that only one
pupil in 15 gets an adequate
examination during his entire
school career.
The basic trouble is this:
what has been passing for a
school medical examination isn't
one at all.
In thousands of schools nei-
ther doctors nor medically
trained personnel administer
the tests. Instead, the principal,
a teacher, or even an older
pupil, officiates.
The children line up, one
steps forward, the tester says,
"Say ah," and peers into the
throat. A crude whisper test for
hearing and the good, but very
limited, Snellen test for vision
complete the "physical check-
up." Yet on the strength of this
almost meaningless examina-
tion, the parents receive a re-
port that, physically, all is well
with their child.
Or suppose the examination
is made by a doctor — probably
by an overworked public health
officer or a private physician
taking needed time away from
his own practice to do this work
for a pittance. The chances are
that the children go through an
assembly line processing which
is little different in its results.
One doctor remarked in disgust,
"I -low can you call glancing
over 40 kids in a morning ses-
sion giving medicals?"
The AMA states: "The physi-
clan can perform a good screen-
ing examination and counsel
with the child and his parents
et the rate of four or five per
hour, providing certain screen-
ing tests that can be perform-
ed by a nurse or teacher have
been completed earlier." Yet,
of 600 medical societies answer-
ing a nationwide AMA ques-
tionaire, less than one third de-
voted 15 or more minutes to an
examination in the schools; 163
admitted spending five to nine
minutes; 89 as little as one to
four minutes!
In addition, the AMA says
the child should be checked for
height and weight and ques-
tioned for complaints suggestive
of illness. He should be given
special vision tests, a hearing
test with an audiometer, a den-
tal examination by a dentist or
dental hygienist, a tuberculin
test, and a chest X ray.
The majority of school exam-
inations are conducted right in
the schoolroom, where there is
no privacy. The result is that
the doctor fails to spot troubles
that can only be revealed when
the child removes most of his
clothing. It has been estimated
that only eight per cent of the
pupils strip for examination. In
fact, sneezy cities actually have
local rules or customs which
prohibit the removal of : cloth-
ing for a school medical exam-
' ination.
No wonder doctors miss com-
pletely cases like that of a girl
who had a spinal deformation
that was concealed by her
clothes, or of the boy who had
a hernia that would have been
seen had he stripped.
Chest X ray examination
should be part of adequate
diagnosis, but it is doubtful that.
one student in 20 routinely gets
one. When parents of a first -
grader in an eastern suburban
community had her X-rayed by
a private physician, it was
found that she had TB. The en-
tire class was the X-rayed and
three others were also found to
have tuberculosis. Moreover, so
did the young teacher, who was
identified as the source of in-
fection.
Millions of school children
are still given hearing tests by
the crudest methods, when 'we
have available an excellent de-
vice for testing hearing, the
audiometer. Millions more get
only a simple test` of their vis-
ual acuity, in spite of the fact
that we have modern machines'
that provide tests of all phases
of vision.
But do we need physical ex-
aminations in the schools at all?
Can't the whole thing be done
by private physicians to whom
parents might take their dell -
siren? Medical authorities say
"No!" mainly because most par-
ents would not take the time
and and trouble to do so. The
plain fact, as stated by the Sec-
ond National Conference of
Physicians and Schools, is that,
on all economic levels, "It is
uncommon for children 'who
seem healthy to be taken to the
doctor after their second year
of life."
The need for school examina-
tions has been dramatically
proven by cases where the ex-
aminations have been thorough.
When the Board of Education
of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts,
had the entire student body of
1,575 take special vision tests,
there were 307 failures. Inci-
dentally, only 132 of these
would have been discovered by
the sketchy methods usually
used in school vision tests.
The state of Pennsylvania in-
stituted a program of thorough
examinations, and found that
out of approximately 1,000,000
children examined in one year,.
some 400,00* had medical de-
fects.
What can be done to snake
the medical examination sys-
tem in your school work?
Abandon the force of annual
examinations The ,SMA be-
lieves that four thorough ex-
=ivaations, given at regular in-
tervals, the first before the
child starts kindergarten, will
reveal health difficulties.
In a special study in Roches-
ter, New York, where three
such ekaminations are given, it
was found that during the year
following the admission exam-
ination only one child out of
997 had developed a serious
condition which had not been
and could not have been ob-
served by the teacher.
Organize community forces,
Perhaps the best way to do this
is to follow the example of com-
munities like Bronxville, New
York, Here standards are set,
and a watchful eye kept on
school health problems bi' ac-
tive health committees which
include not only the official
school physicians and school
nurses, but the scl;ool princi-
pals, five general practitioners,
five pediatricians, and several
representatives of the PTA.
Have parents present at ex-
aminations. In the first place,
'says the AMA, this increases
the likelihood that the exam-
ination will be complete; if it
is incomplete, the parents will
at least not receive the false im-
pression that it was.
Also, parents can give vital
information that will often not
turn up in examination. In
Elizabeth, New Jersey, a par-
ent told the examining physi-
cian that her child sometimes
lacked' bladder control. Acting
on this information, the doctor
ordered tests, which revealed
diabetes.
Provide adequate facilities.
All schools where examinations
are to be made should have
rooms which insure privacy.
Children should not be embar-
rassed by having possible ail-
ments brought to the attention
of their . classmates.
Give examining doctors more
help. That means, in the first
place, teachers better trained in
medical matters. Too many
schools expect teachers to play
some part in observing the phy-
sical condition of children, yet
do not give them any sort of
training that would help them
spot ailments.
Scores of communities have
used volunteer helpers with
gratifying results. In Phoenix,
Arizona, parents learned to use
.the audiometer and tackled the
giving of hearing examinations
in teams. One mother operated
the machine, another took the
readings and a third sheperded
the children.
All this may take time, for
sweeping changes cannot be
made overnight. While your
community is working toward
decent medical examinations
for its children, you owe your
own children the protection of
a proper examination by the
family physician at least once
every three years.
We live in times of great
medical achievments. Yet, won-
derful as they are, we can make
an equal contribution to the
health of America's children by
wiping out the scandal of our
inadequate , school medical ex-
aminations.
Hungry Owl
Nelson Crebassa was driving
down a moonlit road in the state
of Washington recently when
he witnessed a most unusual
sight. A dark shadow swooped
down out of the heavens,
touched a speeding car ahead,
and made off with something in
its claws.
Both Crebassa and the driver
of the other car stopped their
vehicles to see what the bird
had stolen. It was a squirrel
• tail, snatched from an aerial on
the lead car by a hungry owl!
THE DARK
CONTINENT.
T
Africa is three tinges the size
of the ITnited States and is• in-
habited by 200 millions of peo-
ple whd speak at least seven
hundred different languages,
The principal characteristics .of
the continent are: immense
compact shape, a very *ruler
coastline, .and scarcity of navi-
gable rivers, Five thousand
miles long from north to south,
four thousand five hundred
miles wide from east to west,
Africa has room within its
coasts to accommodate the
United States, Australia, and
India; and this would still leave
room for France, Spain, Italy,
England, and a number of other
European countries?
Generally speaking, Africa is
a great plateau whose average
height above sea level is about
2,000 feet. It has a smaller pro-
portion of low-lying lands than
any other continent. The escape-
ment,, or edge of the plateau,
does not reach the seacoast but
is divided from . the sea by a
strip of lowland which varies
greatly in width, being narrow-
est in Algeria and South Africa,
and widest in Mauretania and
Somaliland.
No matter where the traveler
lands in Africa, his progress in-
to the interior of the country
will always be barred by this
escarpment. Trains must labori-
ously ascend it in zigzag grades,
and vessels that attempt to sail
up any of Africa's rivers sooner
or later find their passage
blocked either by rapids or by
enormous waterfalls. This is the
major cause of the delay in ex-
ploration which resulted in Af-
rica's being known the world
over as the Dark Continent.
Although averaging 2,000 feat
above sea level; the great con-
tinental plateau of AfricaSsby
no means level; and while there
are ne great mountain ranges
such as the Rockies or the
Himalayas, there are a number
of isolated masses of lofty
mountains, some of which are
snowcapped all the year round,
such as the Atlas Mountains of
Morocco and the famous 'Moun-
tains of the Moon (Ruwenzori)
in Central Equatorial Aerica,
Some of the peaks of Ethopia
are also snowcapped. The high-
est of Africa's mountains are
Mount Kenya, 17,040 feet high,
and Mount Kilimanjaro, whose
summit looks very much like
an inverted saucer floating in
the sky nearly 20,000 feet above
the surrounding plain. , .
The African plateau is also
distinguished by ' several im-
mense basins in which the
drainage is toward the interior
.rather than toward the sea, The
Sahara itself is such a basin,
north of the equator, while the
Kalahari Desert is another but
smaller one in`the south. It has
been estimated that about half
of Africa is made up of such
internal depressions, drained or
undrained, among which are
swamp and lake regions as well
as desert basins. — From "intro-
ducing Africa," by Carveth
Wells.
"I came 'here looking for
position, Is this it?"
•"NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN . . . "--.,.or a washed out, fooRr
bridge keeps Postmistress Pauline Luck from delivering the moat*
When the Hooding 'Kaweah River recently swept away the
bridge, the persistent postmistress and her assistant, ridged u
a cable buoy across the river to replace the bridge. Postmistresll
and her mail ride high and dry hi the tradition that the mog
mulct go through,