[CONTENTS]
| Introduction | |||
| Part I | |||
| Explanatory Lessons | |||
| PAGE | |||
| Preparation of Food | [9] | ||
| Chemical and Physical Changes | [10] | ||
| Elements | [12] | ||
| Air | [14,] [38] | ||
| Fire | [14] | ||
| Composition of the Body | [16] | ||
| Principal Chemical Compounds in the Body | [17] | ||
| The Five Food Principles | [18] | ||
| Water | [19] | ||
| Protein | [24] | ||
| Fats | [28] | ||
| Carbohydrates | [31] | ||
| Mineral Matters | [65] | ||
| Milk | [44] | ||
| Digestion | [49] | ||
| Nutrition | [53] | ||
| Part II | |||
| Recipes | |||
| Beef-juice, Beef-tea, and Broths | [75] | ||
| Gruels | [83] | ||
| Mush and Porridge | [90] | ||
| Drinks | [95] | ||
| Jellies | [120] | ||
| Toast | [128] | ||
| Soups | [134] | ||
| Oysters | [145] | ||
| Eggs | [153] | ||
| Potatoes | [161] | ||
| Meats | [168] | ||
| Stews | [185] | ||
| Sweetbreads | [188] | ||
| Fish | [191] | ||
| Custards, Creams, Puddings, and Blanc-Mange | [195] | ||
| Salads | [211] | ||
| Ice-cream, Sherbets, and Ices | [217] | ||
| Cooked Fruits | [225] | ||
| Bread | [232] | ||
| Cake | [246] | ||
| Diet Lists or Menus for the Sick | [254] | ||
| Liquid Diet—Five Menus | [254] | ||
| Light Diet—Five Menus for Breakfast, Dinner, Supper, and Lunch | [256] | ||
| Convalescent's Diet—Eight Menus for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter | [260] | ||
| Serving | |||
| Importance of Skill in Cooking the Things to be Served | [267] | ||
| Good Serving a Necessity for the Sick | [268] | ||
| Preparation of the Invalid's Tray | [268,] [270] | ||
| Importance of Harmony of Colors in Dishes, Linen, and Flowers | [269] | ||
| Care of Dishes and Tray in Contagious Diseases | [271] | ||
| Tray Decoration | [272] | ||
| Variety, Intervals of Feeding, and Quantity of Food to be Given | [273,] [274] | ||
| A Plan for the Preparation of an Invalid's Breakfast | [278] | ||
| The Feeding of Children | |||
| Ways in which a Child may be Supplied with Food | [280] | ||
| Artificial Feeding | [280] | ||
| Comparison of the Composition of Cow's and Human Milk | [281] | ||
| Buying, Care, and Sterilization of Cow's Milk | [281,] [284] | ||
| Mellin's Food and other Attenuants | [283,] [290,] [291] | ||
| Predigestion | [283,] [284] | ||
| Bacterial Poisons in Milk | [285,] [286] | ||
| Apparatus for Sterilizing Milk | [287] | ||
| Care of Feeding-bottles | [287] | ||
| Use of Condensed Milk | [288] | ||
| Preserved Milk | [289] | ||
| Farinaceous Foods, Mellin's Food, Malted Milk, etc. | [289,] [290] | ||
| Amount of Food for each Meal—Dilution of—Manner of Giving | [293] | ||
| Temperature of Food when Given, and Intervals of Feeding | [294] | ||
| General Rules for Feeding | [294] | ||
| For the First Week | [295] | ||
| After the First Week and until the Sixth Week | [295] | ||
| From the Sixth Week to the Sixth Month | [296] | ||
| From the Sixth to the Tenth Month | [297] | ||
| From the Tenth to the Twelfth Month | [298] | ||
| From the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Month | [299] | ||
| After Eighteen Months | [299] | ||
| Foods to be Carefully Avoided | [300] | ||
| District Nursing | |||
| District Nursing | [301] | ||
| To Make a Fire | [302] | ||
| To Wash Dishes | [303] | ||
| Sweeping and Dusting | [303] | ||
| Bills of Fare for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday: | |||
| In May | [304-308] | ||
| In September | [308-310] | ||
| In January | [310-313] | ||
| Literature | |||
| A List of Books on the Chemistry of Foods, Bacteriology, Nutrition, Health, Practical Cooking, and Allied Subjects, useful for Reference | [313] | ||
| Charts of the Composition of Various Foods for Use in a Cooking-school | [314] | ||
| Apparatus for Furnishing a Cooking-school | [315] | ||
[INTRODUCTION]
The work of the nurse is to care for her patient, to watch, to tend, and to nurture him in such a way that he shall gain and maintain sufficient strength to overcome disease, that he may finally be restored to a state of health. Her greatest allies in this work consist in the proper hygienic surroundings of good air, warmth, cleanliness, and proper nourishment.
The most scrupulous cleanliness in the care and preparation of food is an important point in her work, and practically to appreciate this, some knowledge of bacteriology is necessary, for the various fermentative and putrefactive changes (often unnoticed) which take place in both cooked and uncooked foods are caused by the growth of microscopic forms of life. Most of us realize the necessity for removing all visible impurities, but that is not enough; we should also combat those unseen agents which are everywhere at work, in order that we may prevent their action upon food material or destroy the products of their growth. Often these products are of a poisonous nature, and cause grave physical disturbances when they occur in our foods. When such knowledge is more general, we shall have arrived at a state of progress in the care and preparation of foods not yet universally reached.
The indications at present are that nothing of importance will be done to change for the better the existing methods of housekeeping, until housekeepers are educated in the science of household affairs. They should comprehend (1) that the atmosphere is an actual thing; that it has characteristics and properties like other actual things; that it is a necessity of life, and may be made a medium for the transmission of disease; and that it is as necessary that it should be kept clean as the floor, the table, or the furniture; (2) that food is a subject which may be studied and mastered like any other subject; that the changes it undergoes in its care and preparation are governed by fixed laws; (3) they should have a knowledge of heat in order to appreciate the effects of temperature on different food materials, to regulate the ventilation of their houses, and to control fires wisely and economically; and (4) they should have some knowledge of bacteriology, that milk and water, flesh, fruit, and vegetables may be kept, or rendered, absolutely free from disease-giving properties, and that perfect cleanliness may be exercised in preparing all materials that enter the body as nutrients.
It is not the intention to imply that all micro-organisms produce injurious effects wherever they are found; on the contrary, they are as essential to man's existence as are the higher forms of life; but often they seriously, even fatally, interfere with that existence, and in order to discriminate and to combat the evil a knowledge of their ways and modes of life is essential.