Handbook of domestic science and household arts for use in elementary schools

Duty of the Nurse. — The feeding of the sick is a very important matter. In acute diseases, proper food is as necessary as medicine ; while, in many chronic diseases, diet may be the only means of cure. In ordering and preparing food for the sick, the physician and nurse have each distinct duties. It is for the physician to determine what the patient should eat, and for the nurse to follow his orders intelligently. If these orders are very explicit, the nurse needs only a knowledge of the principles of cooking ; but if they are indefinite, — if, for example, he orders a liquid diet, without specifying what foods are included under such a designation, — the nurse has need of some knowledge of the principles of invalid feeding. Liquid Diet, or Food for very Sick Patients. — A very sick patient may have more need of nourishment than a well person. An acvite disease is usually accompanied by fever. Fever indicates that the tissues are being rapidly burned out and destroyed. This creates a need of food with which to replace these lost tissues. Unfortunately, just at the time when the need of food is greatest, the digestive apparatus is likely to be out of order. It is the duty of the digestive organs to make insoluble foods soluble, and thus ready to be carried to the different parts of the body. This they can do in health. In sickness, however, their work, in part at least, must be done for them. Hence the very sick should, as a rule, be given only soluble foods. These may be naturally soluble, like albumen and sugar, or they may have been predigested. It is frequently necessary to have the food not only soluble, but also very dilute. In this form it is most easily absorbed. The large amount of water in dilute foods is valuable for the washing out from the system of the waste material which results from the excessive destruction of tissues. The sick, like the well, need proteids for building tissues, and also carbohydrates or fats for giving heat and energy. The first is best given to the very sick in the form of albumen, which is soluble in water, or of digested proteids, which are known as peptones. The first is found in meat juices, uncontaminated by indigestible substances, and accompanied by certain mild stimulants. White of egg is an almost pure solution of albumen, but is not very dilute. Milk whey contains a little albumen. Peptonized foods can be prepared at home, or bought ready prepared. The heat-producing foods are usually given in the form of soluble carbohydrates. One of these is dextrin, made by the action of heat on starch. It is found in the brown crust of bread or of toast. This can be dissolved, and served as ''toast tea." This familiar article of invalid diet is now being superseded by the malted foods which are everywhere on sale. These contain dextrin and other soluble carbohydrates. The sugars are also