This is a subject of vast and vital importance. It comprises the science
of alimentation, which forms one of the indispensable functions of life;
it is thus, of necessity, a serious preoccupation under all conditions.
I have treated this important subject in my greater work with the minute
detail, which it deserves; thus, in following the advice given, therein,
in chapter XVIII, the reader will be able to ascertain the foods that
are best suited to various conditions, and how to prepare them in the
most sensible way.
At present, I can treat it only in a short and general way, giving the
principal groups of diet prescribed, with more or less variation, in
each case of disease as a part of the general treatment.
A few words may show _why_ diet plays so important a part in this system
of healing.
In the body there is a laboratory which produces spontaneously
everything necessary to maintain life.
This laboratory has various branches which are busy day and night
without interruption.
Here the life blood is created.
Prominent amongst these branches are:
The stomach with its prolonged intestines;
The liver;
The kidneys;
The lungs, and
The skin.
Each one of these branches has a distinct part, or function to perform.
The stomach serves as the sorting house. Here the food is mixed with the
gastric juice which aids digestion and dissolves those ingredients
necessary to produce blood, flesh, fat, bones, etc.
Each of the other branches receives that portion of the ingredients
needed to perform its share of the work.
A structure cannot be constructed without a frame upon which every part
depends. In order to stand erect, the body must possess such a
framework. The skeleton is the same to the body as the frame is to the
building. This frame, then, or skeleton, together with the flesh, blood,
etc. are all formed from the material furnished by the food.
A residue of the digested food is removed from the body as useless;
everything else is utilized.
The portion of the food used, therefore, must contain all those
ingredients which go to make up and maintain the body in perfect working
order.
Experience has suggested certain groups of suitable diet which for the
sake of convenience I shall enumerate under the title of _Forms No. I to
No. VI_.
These food forms contain everything of which patients may safely
partake, and from these selection, in each case, must be made.
They are as follows:
_Form I. Complete elimination of the stomach in the nourishing
process._
To allay thirst, moisten the mouth with pure or carbonized water,
melting small pieces of ice on the tongue. Small sips of water either
lukewarm or cold, according to the condition of the stomach. Otherwise,
only introduce water by clyster--i.e.--injection, and if the stomach
cannot be disturbed for more than one or two days, introduce nourishing
substances by way of the rectum.
_Form II. Purely liquid nourishment, "soup diet."_
Consommé of pigeon, chicken, veal, mutton, beef, beef tea, meat jelly
(which becomes liquid under the influence of the heat of the body,)
strained soups or such as are prepared of the finest flour with water or
bouillon, of barley, oats, rice (thick soup), green corn, rye flour,
malted milk. All of these soups, with or without any additions, such as
raw eggs, either whole or the yolk only, if well mixed and not
coagulated, are easily digested.
_Form III. Nourishment which is not purely liquid, but partly
glutinous._
Milk and milk preparations (belonging to this group on account of their
coagulation in the stomach):
(a) Cow's milk, diluted and without cream, dilution with 1-2 to 2-3
barley water, rice water, lime water, vichy water, weak tea, or pure
water.
(b) Milk without cream, not diluted.
(c) Unskimmed milk.
(d) Cream, either diluted or undiluted.
(e) All of these milk combinations with an addition of yolk of egg,
well-mixed, whole egg, cocoa, also a combination of egg and cocoa.
Milk mush made of flour for children, arrowroot, mondanin, cereal flour
of every kind, especially oats, groat soups with tapioca or sago and
potato soup.
Egg,-raw, stirred, or sucked from the shell; or slightly warmed in a
cup; any of these, either with or without the addition of a little sugar
or salt.
Biscuit and crackers, softened or well masticated and salivated, taken
with milk, mush, etc.
_Form IV. Diet of the lightest kind, containing meat, but still mainly
glutinous._
Noodle soup, rice soup.
Mashed boiled brains or sweetbread, or puree of white or red roasted
meat, in soup.
Brains and sweetbread boiled.