Food, Colonialism and the Quantum of Happiness

Bibliographic Data

ID4493423
AuthorsRebecca Earle (0000-0003-3430-4240, University of Warwick, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume84
Pages170-193
Publication date2017-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory Workshop Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hwj/dbx046
OpenAlexW2596106428
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited52

Among all the labours of life, if there is one pursuit more replete than any other with benevolence, more likely to add comforts to existing people, and even to augment their numbers by augmenting their means of subsistence, it is certainly that of spreading abroad the bounties of creation, by transplanting from one part of the globe to another such natural productions are likely to prove beneficial to the interests of humanity. Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, 1793.1 In 1799 a group of wealthy women in Madrid began a decade-long experiment aimed at discovering the best substitute for breast milk. The ladies, members of the Junta de Damas affiliated with Madrid’s Royal Economic Society, had taken over the management of the city’s foundling hospital, which provided motivation for their investigation and a ready supply of infants on whom to test their experimental formulas. Unable to find enough wet-nurses for the hundreds of babies now in its charge, the Junta explored substitutes, including goat’s milk, goat’s milk mixed with fennel, and donkey’s milk drunk directly from the animal’s teat. Members kept notes on the outcome of their tests and discussed the results with doctors from the Royal Academy of Medicine. Disappointingly, almost all the babies died. The Junta was therefore eager to try a new substance that came highly recommended as an infant feed. Maranta arundinacea, or arrowroot, originated in Cuba, where it was reportedly used to great effect. The powder was tested on twenty-two babies. After twenty deaths the trial was halted. The surviving infants were handed over to a wet-nurse and the Junta’s medical team concluded that despite the fanfare this Caribbean root was not a suitable baby food.2

Agriculture · Ancient history · Colonialism · Economic history · Ethnology · Globe · Happiness · Nagging · Political science · Subsistence agriculture · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Psychology