LIQUID DIET
If nourishment is to be given throughout the night, either hot or warm milk or cocoa is good. They are soothing and sometimes induce sleep. Tea and wine whey should be avoided at night, unless, of course, the patient needs stimulating, in which case use the wine only, for tea often causes wakefulness.
The whites of eggs beaten and strained, and mixed with finely crushed ice, is a valuable form of food for a typhoid fever patient. Toast-water and cracker tea are good in all feverish conditions. Milk may be varied by making it into milk-punch, with a very little sugar (a scanty teaspoon) and a tablespoon of brandy or sherry to each tumbler, or it may be made with a few drops of vanilla, instead of the brandy or sherry.
LIGHT DIET
Light diet consists of everything included in liquid diet, and in addition fruits, such as grapes and oranges; porridge of granum or farina; soft-cooked or poached eggs; dry, water, milk, and cream toast; the maigre soups, such as celery and mock-bisque, and chicken; delicate puddings, coffee and velvet cream, and baked custards, with perhaps for dinner a meat ball, a small bit of beefsteak or roast beef, and a baked potato.
Jellies made with gelatine, especially when flavored with wine, are a very valuable form of food with which to make the transition from liquid to light diet. They are palatable, nutritious, and, being in solid form, are satisfying to the minds of those who think they are not getting much to eat when fed on liquids alone.
The change from liquid to light diet should be made gradually, adding one kind of solid food at a time. Perhaps after the jellies a bit of water or milk toast, then an egg, then a little soup or pudding, until, as strength is gained, the person is able to take anything in the list, and finally is able to eat almost any kind of nutritious and well-prepared food.
First Day.