A System of Medicine Volume 3; Diseases pf obscure causation alimentationand excretion - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 Excerpt: ...auto-intoxication be suspected, and milk in this respect desirable, one of the best brands of condensed milk without sugar may be prescribed. Otherwise tender meat, lightly cooked and teased from the fibre with a fork, is lighter, more digestible, and more sustaining. Meat essences, the dry meat powders, jellies, minces, and purees of chicken, fish and other tender meats may be allowed. Fat is so important an element of diet, especially in emaciated patients, that unless the butyric fermentation be very active, some fats must be included in the diet. Eggs--raw, boiled, or in custards--are nutritious and of small bulk. Cream, again, or a little fresh butter, may be both pleasant and useful. In the cases of stenosis in which the gastric juices are not much in defect, carbohydrates may bo taken in small quantity without treating the flatulence which is so mischievous in increasing distension at the very time when the stomach should be contracting. Vegetables are better avoided; if fresh meat be taken they are not necessary, or a little lemon juice may be taken occasionally. Untoastcd bread should be forbidden, and likewise such starchy foods as arrowroot, sago, rice, and the like. In the earlier stages it is better to limit the starchy food to rusks and plain biscuits; but as the patient's state improves, malt extract may be added to the diet with advantage, as it is readily soluble, nutritious, arid laxative. Liquids cannot be forbidden altogether. Small quantities of good old spirit, such as whisky or cognac, may be taken with a little water. Tea and coffee must be laid aside, but a little cocoa made from the nibs may be grudgingly permitted. The quantity of food to be taken at each meal must depend upon the weight of the patient and upon his state of health...