You should never give food to an invalid which has been kept overnight, and never serve up the same dish two days running. Invalids very rapidly tire of everything, and as varied a diet as possible must be provided for them.
The drinks of persons suffering from fevers often occasion considerable difficulty. Nowadays we let fever patients have as much to drink as they like, though in the old days the fluids were restricted.
Invalids should always have tables at their bedsides, and a drink of some sort should be placed beside them that they may quench their thirst whenever they please.
Whatever drink they are taking, it should be prepared fresh every morning and evening. It is a great mistake to leave jugs of stale lemonade or other drinks in a sick-room.
In cases of fever, and indeed in all diseases, it is well to have plenty of ice on the premises. You will find that many invalids prefer sucking ice to drinking, and it is better for them, because it is less likely to injure the stomach.
Lemonade made from fresh lemons and boiling water, strained and iced, is perhaps the best drink for invalids. Aerated lemonade should not be given, but the other aerated waters may be administered freely in most cases.
Talking about ice, you must be very careful where you get it from. In London the ice supplied is usually quite pure, but in the country, and still more abroad, you must be very careful about ice. If it is possible to obtain it, the best ice is that made at home from distilled water with a freezing machine.
Milk given to invalids should always be scalded. Barley-water must be made fresh at least once a day. Under no circumstances may it be kept overnight, for it rapidly decomposes, and sometimes becomes highly poisonous. Toast-and-water, our pet aversion when we had measles, is a thing of the past. We have never ordered it nor seen it ordered.
From diet we pass to medicine. You cannot carry out the instructions of the physician too carefully. Always measure out physic with a clean glass measure. A “drop” or a “teaspoonful” is a most uncertain quantity. Remember that a drop is a minim, a teaspoonful is a dram, and a tablespoonful is half an ounce. But these measures are now old-fashioned, and in a few years will be obsolete.
We now use the decimal system, and order so many “c.c.’s” of fluid (i.e., so many cubic centimetres) to be taken. One cubic centimetre equals not quite seventeen minims. You can easily obtain decimal measures at the same rate as the old forms.