For ordinary domestic purposes, water is classed as hard or
soft. The latter is rain water; the former spring or river water.
These vary much in their degree of hardness, as may readily
be noticed by their behavior with soap. With hard water the
soap does not readily make a lather, but curdles on the hand.
The source of hardness of ivater is in the lime and other salts
that are dissolved out of the strata of the earth through which
it has passed. These may be separated to a considerable ex-
tent by boiling, or by the addition of small quantities of bicar-
bonate of soda. This is the object of some persons who put a
«mall portion of bicarbonate of soda into the teapot when
making tea.
Insoluble impurities can be separated by filters, or by any
•arrangement by which it is made to pass through fine sand or
broken charcoal. The charcoal has the property of absorbing
gases from water and rendering it sweet and pure.
In the treatment of disease, water is of primary importance,
as it allays thirst and fever by diluting the blood and giving
the medium by which a poison may be eliminated from the
system. In fever and in cholera thirst is often the one great
complaint, and the cry is for water ! water ! This indication of
nature may safely be followed, and the patient allowed to
drink as freely as he will.
Water is the chief of diuretics; it increases the secretion of
urine, and promotes thereby the evacuation of effete or irri-
tant matters from the blood.
Farinaceous Foods. — Farinaceous foods should be cau-
tiously given to young infants. Neither the secretion of the
saliva in the mouth, nor of the gastric juice in the stomach,
is adapted for their digestion. Among the farinaceous foods,
suitable for young children, are baked flour, corn flour, biscuit
powder, arrowroot, ground root, etc. It is not possible to say
in which case each of these may be most suitable; wjiat may
be easily digested by one child may not agree with another,
or with the same child for long together. After five or six
months a crusf may be given, but should be carefully watched.
When some teeth are cut, the admixture of solids may occa-
sionally be permitted; but, even when all the teeth are cut, it
is advisable only to give meat every other or every third day.
Soups, beef tea, etc., may be given at other times.
General Diet. — It is scarcely necessary here to enter
upon the diet for adults in health, as this will depend very
much upon the pursuits and inclinations of each. It is well
known that those who work hura tin generally eat well with-
416 MEDICINAL.
out much regard to what is put before them — "Hunger is their
best sauce."
It may suffice to offer a few remarks on the digestibility of
some article of food as a guide to invalids, and with reference
to the diet recommended under the several headings of disease
in the following pages.
It may be stated generally that beef is less digestible than
mutton, especially for persons subject to dyspepsia. Beef is
more easily digested cold than hot by delicate stomachs. Both
these meats will require upwards of three hours for digestion.
Salt beef will demand twice the time. Veal, lamb, and young
meat generally, is not so easy of digestion as the meat of ani-
mals killed at maturer age. Pork in any form is less readily
digested than other meats.
Page 308
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
For ordinary domestic purposes, water is classed as hard or soft. The latter is rain water; the former spring or river water. These vary much in their degree of hardness, as may readily be noticed by their behavior with soap. With hard water the soap does not readily make a lather, but curdles on the hand. The source of hardness of water is in the lime and other salts that are dissolved out of the strata of the earth through which it has passed. These may be separated to a considerable extent by boiling, or by the addition of small quantities of bicarbonate of soda. This is the object of some persons who put a «mall portion of bicarbonate of soda into the teapot when making tea.
Insoluble impurities can be separated by filters, or by any •arrangement by which it is made to pass through fine sand or broken charcoal. The charcoal has the property of absorbing gases from water and rendering it sweet and pure.
In the treatment of disease, water is of primary importance, as it allays thirst and fever by diluting the blood and giving the medium by which a poison may be eliminated from the system. In fever and in cholera thirst is often the one great complaint, and the cry is for water ! water ! This indication of nature may safely be followed, and the patient allowed to drink as freely as he will.
Water is the chief of diuretics; it increases the secretion of urine, and promotes thereby the evacuation of effete or irritant matters from the blood.
Farinaceous Foods. — Farinaceous foods should be cautiously given to young infants. Neither the secretion of the saliva in the mouth, nor of the gastric juice in the stomach, is adapted for their digestion. Among the farinaceous foods, suitable for young children, are baked flour, corn flour, biscuit powder, arrowroot, ground root, etc. It is not possible to say in which case each of these may be most suitable; what may be easily digested by one child may not agree with another, or with the same child for long together. After five or six months a crusf may be given, but should be carefully watched. When some teeth are cut, the admixture of solids may occasionally be permitted; but, even when all the teeth are cut, it is advisable only to give meat every other or every third day. Soups, beef tea, etc., may be given at other times.
General Diet. — It is scarcely necessary here to enter upon the diet for adults in health, as this will depend very much upon the pursuits and inclinations of each. It is well known that those who work hura tin generally eat well with-
out much regard to what is put before them — "Hunger is their best sauce."
It may suffice to offer a few remarks on the digestibility of some article of food as a guide to invalids, and with reference to the diet recommended under the several headings of disease in the following pages.
It may be stated generally that beef is less digestible than mutton, especially for persons subject to dyspepsia. Beef is more easily digested cold than hot by delicate stomachs. Both these meats will require upwards of three hours for digestion. Salt beef will demand twice the time. Veal, lamb, and young meat generally, is not so easy of digestion as the meat of animals killed at maturer age. Pork in any form is less readily digested than other meats.