These beverages, in common with any nutritious soups, offer a fluid form of food just adapted to an imperfect condition of the general bodily functions, which being more or less suspended, require nourishment in a form easy of assimilation. It is on these accounts that their beneficial effects may, at least in part, be attributed. Taken after fatigue, they have a remarkable power of restoring the vigorous action of the heart, and dissipating the sense of exhaustion following severe or prolonged exertion. They are recommended in preference to the glass of wine which some take after preaching, watching, prolonged mental effort, etc.
If lean, raw meat is passed several times through the mincing machines, and every fragment of tendon removed, the ultimate produces is a soft homogeneous mass, which is not only easily digested, but possesses such such powers of stimulation and nutrition that in many sanatoria for Tuberculosis a great feature is made of its regular administration. It has great value also in convalescence after gastric ulcer, enteric, etc. It is not unpalatable, but its appearance sometimes distresses patients. It may then be given in sandwiches between thin slices of dry bread, or warm (not boiling) stocky may be poured over it and it may be taken like soup. The stock must not be so hot as to blanch the meat.
Rice (whole or ground), barley, isinglass, etc., may often be advantageously added to thicken the beef-tea.
MUTTON BROTH.- This may be made in a similar manner to beef-tea, either plain or thickened. For this purpose the best part of the sheep the end of the neck, free from skin and fat, bruised and cut into small pieces.
CHICKEN BROTH may be prepared from a full-grown young chicken, divested of head, neck, feet, skin, and fat. Toast should be given with it, or it will be rather insipid.
VEAL BROTH is not very palatable; and as it does not contain the nutritious qualities of beef-tea or mutton broth, it is scarcely advisable to introduce it to the sick-room, except for the skin of variety.
MUTTON CHOPS.- For a convalescent, a mutton chop broiled over a brisk, clear fire, rather than fried, is generally most suitable. It should be frequently turned on the fire, but not pricked.
FARINACEOUS FOOD.- In all cases of fever, enfeebled digestion, and general weakness, it is desirable to rely mainly on farinaceous food. Even beef-tea may some times be too stimulating.
OATMEAL PORRIDGE.- When properly made, this is both wholesome and nutritious, especially when a patient does not suffer from any form of bowel irritation. It has long been the staple food of the Scotch, and produces good muscular fibre and strong bone. It is a very nourishing diet for growing children. Common oatmeal is not equal to it; but it is not always easy to obtain the Scotch. It should be prepared as follows- Boil water according to quantity required, adding salt to taste; while boiling, sprinkle the meal slowly on the surface and stir it in; when enough is added, let all simmer for half an hour or longer, stirring occasionally.
PEARL BARLEY forms an excellent meal. It should be boiled for four hours, so tied in cloth that room is left for the grain to swell. Only so much water should be added from time to time as to feed the barley and supply the waste of evaporation, lest the goodness of the barley should be boiled out. It may be served with milk, or (if the patient can digest them) with preserves or butter.
RICE is regarded with prejudice by many, perhaps because it is cheap. But, prepared with milk, it is both wholesome and nourishing. It is easily digested, and is therefore most suitable for persons suffering from disorders of the alimentary canal, such as Diarrhoea and Dysentery; indeed, we have known the disorder arrested by simply taking boiled rice and drinking the rice-water. It requires less time to prepare than barely-one hour is sufficient; but it may be cooked and served in the same way. Old rice is better than new. Baked rice puddings form a pleasant variation. For these ground rice is preferable. Rice puddings, and all other farinaceous puddings made with milk, more wholesome when made without the addition of eggs.
MACARONI PUDDINGS.- There ounces of macaroni should be soaked for forty minutes in cold water, well mashed, then added to a pint of boiling milk. This should be stirred occasionally, while it simmers for half an hour; then two eggs added, beaten up with a dessertspoonful of sugar; also, if desired, a flavouring of lemon. This may then be baked in a pie-dish for twenty minutes. Vermicelli may be used instead of macaroni, but requires only twenty minutes’ soaking.
Part of a stale loaf of bread, (It is of great importance, especially when children are concerned, that bread should be pure. The following is a simple test for alum, the most common adulterant. If alum be present, a heated knife plunged into the loaf and allowed to remain till cool, with render its peculiar typical sourness perceptible on placing the knife in the mouth.) boiled, and served with wholesome food. Bread puddings made with eggs and milk, either boiled or baked, and sponge cake (Stale) puddings, made in the same way, diversify the diet.
There are many preparations of farinaceous foods. Some of them have acquired considerable reputation, and are really very excellent; some, on the other hand, are preparations of pulse, which are not adapted to weak digestion.
ARROWROOT, TAPIOCA, SAGO, JELLIES, etc., are little more than vehicles for the administration of other things. In themselves they afford but little nourishment. Isinglass, however, possess considerable nutritive qualities.
TOAST is rarely made well. Bread burnt on both surfaces, with the inside spongy, is unwholesome food. It should be stale, of moderate thickness, slowly and thoroughly baked through, nicely browned on the outside-in short, not toasted too fast. Such toast is wholesome to eat or to soak in water.
FARINACEOUS Foods.- Many years’ experience in the use of Neave’s Food justifies the recommendation of it as an excellent article of diet for infants, invalids, and persons of feeble the preparation to contain every constituent necessary for the nourishment of the body; and this has been abundantly confirmed by what we have frequently observed as the result of its use. For infants it should be prepared according to the directions supplied with the food, taking care not to make it too thick; and, in the majority of cases, it is the best substitute for the mother’s milk. It also makes a very agreeable and highly nutritive gruel.
One precaution is necessary. Neave’s food should be obtained fresh and in good deteriorates. Under favourable circumstances it keeps good for from six to twelve months, and may generally be procured in excellent condition from the leading homoeopathic chemists. Du Barry’s Revalenta, Benger’s, Mellin’s and Allen & Hanbury’s foods are all valuable. Sometimes a patient can take one and had another, so that it is desirable to have a choice of several.
Those foods which consist of nearly pure starch, as corn- flours, so called, and all those which thicken in like manner, contain but a small proportion of nutriment, being less sustaining, and also more difficult of digestion, than ordinary stale bread. For young infants and for children suffering from Diarrhoea, Indigestion, Constipation, Flatulence, Atrophy, or Aphthae, they are very unsuitable. In all cases, foods which contain traces of bran, and also gluten, gum, sugar, cellulose, and saline matter-especially the phosphates-in proportion to the starch, are to be preferred.
SUGAR-OF-MILK.- A preparation of cows’ milk a nd sugar-of-milk forms a still lighter food, and one which may be used when farinaceous food disagrees. Cows’ milk may be assimilated to human by dilution with water and the addition of sugar-of-milk. Cows’ milk contains fat (cream), and caseine, or cheese-matter, but less sugar, than women’s. When necessary to bring up a child by hand from birth, sugar-of-milk is most suitable to commence with.
Formula.- Dissolve one ounce of the sugar-of-milk in three- quarters of a point of boiling water. Mix, as wanted, with an equal quantity of fresh cows’ milk, and let the infant be fed with this from the feeding-bottle in the usual way. The bottle should be washed after feeding, and the teat kept in cold water until wanted again.
It is important to use only cows’ milk of a good quality, and always to administer it at the same temperature as that of breast milk. (See Diseases of Infants and Children. 6th Edition, 1899.) After the fourth or sixth month, Nave’s Farinaceous Food is generally more suitable.
CONDENSED MILK.- Residents in London and large towns, where it may be difficult to obtain good whole some milk, may find it advantageous to use the consolidated milk, imported in sealed tins from Switzerland and other parts. It is prepared by the evaporation of water and the addition of sugar, and when opened the milk is of the consistence of paste. It contains all the elements of pure milk and cream, with sugar in addition; so that it will require only careful dilution with warm water to adapt to the weak digestion of infants. In some instance, however, the excess of sugar proves deleterious, causing acidity and other gastric derangements. The modern preparation of dried milk, known as Glaxo, is a most excellent preparation, superior to any condensed milk. It is retained sometimes when every other food is rejected.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."