THE REMEDIES OF NATURE. 9 



that in Guinea-pigs, rabbits, and other animals, the symptoms of tu- 

 berculosis can be artificially produced by a repeated inoculation with 

 scrofula virus ; and in the children of scrofulous parents the inherited 

 taint often leads to the development of a malignant form of tuber- 

 culosis. Consumptives should therefore avoid all scorbutific articles of 

 diet : salt meat, pickles, indigestible made dishes, rancid fat, pungent 

 spices, cheese, and all kinds of intoxicating liquors. A predilection 

 for such diet is often encouraged by the circumstance that in the in- 

 cipient stages of consumption it can be indulged without apparent 

 inconvenience to the digestive organs. The victims of pulmonary 

 disorders often enjoy an omnivorous appetite. But they should not 

 forget that their diseased lungs act as an absorbent of all morbid mat- 

 ter, and that the immunities of the digestive apparatus are purchased 

 at the expense of the respiratory organs. 



Pathological conditions, involving an abnormal waste of tissue, re- 

 quire, indeed, an extra supply of nutritive aliments, and the patient 

 may claim the right to indulge his appetite in regard to the quantity 

 of his food, but he should earn that right by restricting himself in re- 

 gard to the quality. His diet should be nutritious, non-stimulating, 

 and slightly aperient ; the regulation of the quantum may be trusted 

 to the promptings of Nature. The first full meal, however, should not 

 be taken before the morning exercise. Those who are in the habit of 

 wasting the energy of the day's prime on the digestion of a massive 

 breakfast may palliate their craving with a glass of sweet milk, or a 

 piece of brown bread, dabbed with treacle or cream. Fresh cream, 

 Graham bread, honey, beans baked with butter instead of pork, and a 

 liberal dessert of such fruit as sweet grapes, pears, strawberries, or 

 stewed prunes, at about 1 p. m. At six or seven a similar meal ; for the 

 sake of variety, perhaps buckwheat-cakes instead of bread, and apple- 

 butter instead of honey. In point of quantity let the supper rival the 

 dinner, with the proviso that the rules of the bedroom hygiene shall be 

 duly observed, for, if the vigor of the digestive organs is aided by a 

 liberal supply of oxygen, it is a fallacy to suppose that the night is an 

 unfavorable time for the assimilation of a hearty meal. Animals rest 

 after repletion, and some of them never sleep till they have a good meal 

 to digest. There is no doubt that after meals neither mental nor mus- 

 cular exertion is favorable to the performance of the organic functions 

 which concur to effect the nutrition of the system. And, if the stom- 

 ach can bear it, before going to bed an extra glass or two of sweet- 

 ened cream may be taken not as a food, but as a medicine. It is an 

 established fact that fat counteracts a tuberculous diathesis. The in- 

 habitants of the polar regions consume enormous quantities of non- 

 nitrogenous food. Our negroes, to whom the climate of the United 

 States must be semi-polar, lose no opportunity to gorge themselves 

 with fat meat. The poor monkeys of our Northern menageries are 

 ravenously fond of sweet milk and cream ; instinct teaches them that 



