Tea.
Corn-meal mush, with cream and sugar.
PREPARED FOODS FOR INVALIDS, ETC.
I am indebted to Dr. Franklin, of St. Louis, for this little chapter. Appreciating his experience in the uses of prepared foods for invalids, I asked his advice about certain ones, when he kindly sent me a written opinion, which I insert verbatim. Dr. Franklin says:
“In the dietetic treatment of the sick, notwithstanding that well-meaning and unwise friends often injure their patients by solicitations to take more food, it is often one of the great difficulties to induce the invalid to partake sufficiently of what is suitable, remembering that the body is nourished by the assimilation of the food, and that the assimilating power is weak, and can not be overtaxed. But the desire of food, and, indeed, the assimilation, depend in a considerable degree on the manner in which it is presented. It should not only please the eye and gratify the palate, but should be varied in kind and method of preparation.
“Liebig’s Extract of Meat is an economical and valuable preparation. It is valuable in nearly all cases of physical debility and extreme emaciation, especially after profuse losses of blood in collapse from wounds; for patients suffering from severe and prolonged fevers in the last stage of consumption; in bad cases of indigestion, when the stomach rejects all solid food; and as an article of diet for nursing-mothers, etc.
“In cases of extreme exhaustion, the extract may be mixed with wine. As it is stimulating, it may take the place of tea and coffee, and will be less liable than they to produce derangement of the digestive organs. An advantage with this extract is that it can be readily prepared.
“Valentine’s Extract of Meat.—This is one of the best articles of the kind for the sick-chamber, and is not only simple of preparation, but is the most nutritive of all the beef essences. As a medicinal agent, it will be found of great value to the sick, and for persons (children as well) with weak constitutions.[K]
“These beverages, in common with any nutritive soups, offer to the patient whose general bodily functions are more or less suspended a fluid and assimilable form of food. It is to this adaptation of nourishment to the condition of the body that we must, in part at least, ascribe their beneficial results. They have a remarkable power of restoring the vigorous action of the heart, and dissipating the sense of exhaustion following severe, prolonged exertion, and may be recommended in preference to the glass of wine which some take after watching, preaching, prolonged mental effort, etc.
“Rice (whole or ground), barley, etc., may often be advantageously added to thicken beef tea.