660 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
their bodies, which substance therefore cannot be altogether 
restricted to Starches as its source; and for this reason it 
becomes debatable whether diabetic patients are sugarless even on 
a restricted animal diet. Some of the patent foods, which are 
largely advertised as being predigested artificially, so that the 
Starch is already converted into nourishing substance without 
taxing the saliva, or the stomach-bread, are nevertheless severally 
deficient in fat, and still containing some unchanged Starch ; 
(with the single exception, says Dr. Hutchison, of Mellin’s Food 
for Infants, which is quite free from unconverted Starch). In 
the treatment of diabetes it is no longer considered wise, or 
necessary, to absolutely prohibit all Starches from the diet, else 
a worse condition supervenes, known as acetonuria, with a great 
risk of blood-poisoning, heavy unconsciousness, and death. 
It is true that proteids, and fat, will in a measure serve to take 
the place of the Starches, the latter being a compact source of 
energy ; but these substitutes must put the liver to task, which 
is already inefficient as to its function of sugar conversion. 
Proteids are able to produce a certain moderate amount of 
sugar. 
The best sources of fat are butter (quite fresh), bacon, pork, 
and fatty fish, (as eels, salmon, mackerel, herrings, sprats, 
sardines in oil), suet dripping, salad oil, yolk of eggs, and 
thick cream. In milder cases of diabetes some potatoes may 
be permitted (as explained here in “ Potato,” page 579), and 
may be made into a purée with butter, or cream. A given 
quantity of Potatoes, cooked in their jackets, by steam, and 
mashed, should readily take up half their weight of butter, or 
a quarter of their weight of thick cream. Fat may be likewise 
given in more severe cases with mashed greens, cooked in little, 
or no water except their own juices, or that of an added 
lettuce. Eggs, too, can be scrambled with plenty of butter ; 
and clarified butter may be served with fish, or with asparagus, 
etc. It is worth remembering that the use of alcohol, if other- 
wise proper, at meals greatly aids the digestion of fat. Green 
vegetables may be freely allowed. 
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Starch used 
in laundries for stiffening ruffs, collars, etc., was frequently 
coloured yellow, this being at one time extremely fashionable ; 
but blue Starch was affected by the Puritans. Addison, in the 
Spectator (305), talks of “a Professor who is to give a certain 
