VEGETABLE FOOD. 291 



Whey and milk are often used instead of water. The mixture 

 should be well boiled to avoid flatulence. 



Oatmeal in all its forms is somewhat laxative, and often causes 

 bowel irritation, especially when not sufficiently cooked. Some 

 persons suffer from acidity and eructation when using it. 



Barley is not so much employed as it used to be in the form 

 of bread. When it is made up, some wheat flour is mixed with the 

 meal to make it less compact and heavy, more spongy and light. 

 It is, however, less palatable than wheat bread, less digestible, and 

 is scarcely suitable for weak and disordered stomachs. Barley -flour 

 is the best eaten in the form of gruel or stirabout, made by grad- 

 ually sprinkling or stirring the meal into boiling water. The nu- 

 tritive value of barley-meal is somewhat inferior to that of wheaten 

 flour. Barley meal is cheaper than flour and it is almost the cheap- 

 est article of diet. 



SCOTCH BARLEY is the grain deprived of its husks. 



PEARL-BARLEY is also the grain deprived of its husks, and 

 rounded and polished by attrition. Both are employed to give con- 

 sistence to broth. 



PATENT BARLEY is pearl-barley ground into flour. 



BARLEY-WATER is made from pearl-barley, and forms a slightly 

 nutritive, bland and demulcent drink for invalids. It is made by 

 taking about two ounces of pearl-barley which has been well washed 

 in cold water and boiling it in a pint and a half of water for half 

 an hour. 



MALT is barley changed in process of manufacture, so that a 

 peculiar, active, nitrogenous principle, called diastase, is developed, 

 which has the power of converting starch into dextrine aud sugar. 



AN INFUSION OF MALT is made by boiling four tablespoonfuls of 

 ground malt in a pint of water for ten minutes. The liquid is 

 poured off, diluted one-half with milk or given pure. It is very 

 agreeable and nutritious and is often beneficial in some cases of 

 cholera-infantum when other things are rejected. Malt is one of 

 the ingredients of Liebig's Food for Infants. 



Rye is more like wheat than other cereals, in its fitness for 

 making bread ; but it is not so nutritious as wheaten bread, while its 

 color and acidity often render it distasteful to those who can obtain 

 wheat flour. It is slightly laxative. 



Indian Corn, or maize, is not well adapted for the manufacture 

 of bread on account of its deficiency in gluten ; unless wheat or rye- 

 flour be mixed with it. The meal is cooked by either baking it in 

 cakes or by stirring it into boiling water or boiling milk as with 

 oat-ineal, by which a thick porridge is made. It is commonly 

 flavored with salt, butter or molasses. The large proportion of fatty 

 matter renders it very nutritious. 



Rice is the food of nearly one-third of the human race. The 

 best comes from Carolina. It is useful as an article of diet, whether 

 whole or ground into flour. It, however, requires the addition of 



