The morning meal—the ‘early bit’ of the Germans—is perhaps the most important one of the day. According to Erasmus Wilson, it is usually “taken at eight or nine.” The proper time for the purpose must, however, depend upon that at which the party rises. About an hour, to an hour and a half, after leaving the bed, will generally be found the most appropriate time for breakfast, and appears to be the one pointed out by nature, and the most conducive to health. By that time the powers of the system have fully recovered from the inactivity of sleep, and the
functions of the stomach and other viscera have again come into full play. The appetite is excited and seeks appeasing, and both instinct and reason direct us to the social board. If abstinence be now prolonged, the physical and mental energies, unsupported by the supply of food which indirectly gives them birth, gradually lessen, and incipient exhaustion ensues. The fluids of the stomach and the smaller intestines begin to act upon the coats of those viscera instead of on the food, and an unpleasant feeling of hunger or a loss of appetite comes on, with all its depressing consequences. When breakfast cannot be taken within a reasonable period after rising, the gap should be filled up by chewing a crust, a biscuit, or the like. A raw egg or two, sucked from the shell, or broken into a teacup and drank, will be found most valuable for this purpose. Raw milk, cheese, salted food, and other indigestible matter, should be particularly avoided at this early period of the day.
The articles of food to be chosen for the breakfast-table must depend entirely on the state of the health, the occupations, &c., of those assembled round it. Coffee appears to be, by common consent, the favourite beverage. For the delicate, the bilious, and the young, it should neither be taken too strong, nor very weak, and should be softened down with milk or cream, and well sweetened with sugar. Tea is more apt to affect the nerves and stomach than pure unchicoried coffee. Green tea, taken thus early in the day, often acts as an absolute poison, though a slow one. We have seen severe fits of vomiting and exhaustion follow its use.
The solid food for breakfast should be easy of digestion, and nutritious. Females, children, and persons leading a sedentary life, should confine themselves to a sufficient quantity of good meal-bread with only a moderate quantity of butter, to which an egg, or a small rasher of mild bacon, may be advantageously added. For very young children there is no better breakfast, where it agrees with them, than scalding-hot new-milk poured on sliced bread, with a slice or two of bread and butter to eat with it. Parties engaged in active occupations may extend their exploits somewhat farther, and add to this bill of fare a little ham or cold meat. When an undue time will elapse before the luncheon or dinner, and particularly during the colder season of the year, the broiled leg of a fowl, an under-dressed mutton chop, or a little tender beef-steak, will be found, by the parties last referred to, most useful; nay, in many cases, invaluable. But excess must be particularly avoided. The object is to take enough food to maintain the system in full energy and vigour, and particularly to avoid offending the stomach by overloading it; a misfortune easily effected at the breakfast table. Old commercial travellers—men wise in the mysteries of life and its enjoyments—are scrupulously careful to make a good, but not a heavy breakfast, before commencing the arduous duties of the day. See Déjeûner, Meals, &c.
Breakfast Pow′der. Syn. Rye′-coffee, Dillen′ius’s c., Hunt’s Econom′ical breakfast powder, &c. Rye, roasted along with a little fat, after the manner of coffee. It was once sold at 2s. 6d. the lb., and was formerly extensively used as a substitute for foreign coffee, of which it is one of the cheapest and best. Since the reduction of duty on coffee it has nearly fallen into disuse, unless it be by the grocers to adulterate that article.
BREAST (Sore). See Nipples.
Breast Pang. Syn. Angina pectoris. Symptoms.—A sudden pain occurring in the parts covered by the breast-bone and the throat, accompanied with a feeling of suffocation, and the apprehension of immediate death. The pain sometimes extends down the arms and through the back. Summon a medical man without a moment’s loss of time. Pending his speedy arrival give a drachm of ether with one third of a grain of acetate of morphia. Apply hot applications to the chest and stomach; likewise friction to the chest, back, and sides with spirits. If the relief be only partial, the dose of ether may be repeated after twenty minutes.
BREATH (Fetid). Scarcely anything is more disagreeable or disgusting than a stinking breath. Various means have been proposed to remove this annoyance, depending principally on the administration of aromatics, which by their odour smother it for a time; but these require continual repetition, and are liable to interfere with the functions of digestion. The real cause of stinking breath may generally be traced to a diseased stomach, or to decayed teeth. When the former is the case, mild aperients should be administered; and if these do not succeed, an emetic may be given, followed by an occasional dose of the Abernethy-medicines. When rotten teeth are the cause, they should be thoroughly cleansed, and then ‘stopped,’ or if this is impracticable, they should be removed. When this is impossible or inconvenient, the evil may usually be lessened by keeping them scrupulously clean. Dirty teeth also often cause the breath to smell; and hence the use of the tooth-brush should be a daily habit. Occasionally rinsing out the mouth with a little clean water to which a few drops of solution of chloride of lime, or of chloride of soda, has been added, is often an effective method. Mouth-washes of Condy’s fluid, and also of carbolic acid, both very greatly diluted, form useful remedies; as do also chlorate of potash and tannic acid in the form of mouth-washes. As a tooth-powder, fresh-burnt charcoal, and particularly areca-nut charcoal, is without comparison the best. Lozenges, such as the following, have been strongly recommended
to sweeten and purify the breath:—Gum-catechu, 2 oz.; white sugar, 5 oz.; orris powder, 1 oz.; neroli, 5 or 6 drops; make them into a paste with mucilage, and divide the mass into very small lozenges. 20 or 30 drops of oil of cloves may be substituted for the orris and neroli, at will. One or two may be sucked at pleasure. When the breath of a child or infant, usually so sweet and fresh, smells unpleasantly, it indicates stomach derangement of some sort. Very frequently it is indicative of worms. See Cachou Aromatisé, Pastils, &c.
BREW′ING. The art of making beer.