DIET FOK BRIGHT'S DISEASE. 309 



coffee should not be kept long before it is ground. This is usually 

 done in a coif ee-mill ; or it is pounded in a mortar. In either case 

 the mill or mortar should be used for no other purpose, as coffee 

 has a marked tendency to absorb other odors and thus to acquire a 

 flavor not its own. When ground it should be used as soon as pos- 

 sible, for in this state it rapidly gives off its volatile oil. The best 

 method for keeping it for a short time is in a clean, accurately 

 stoppered bottle. Lead or tinfoil covering does not so effectually 

 retain the virtues of the ground coffee. 



CHICORY yields a drink closely allied in flavor and color to 

 coffee, and is largely used in Europe. In this country it is mixed 

 with coffee for economical reasons. It contains no alkaloid and has 

 no nutritive value. 



Cocoa is distinguished from tea and coffee by the large 

 amount of nutriment it contains. It is indeed, a food rather than a 

 refreshing beverage. Of albuminous matters it contains about 

 twenty per cent., and of fatty matters about fifty per cent., before 

 it has been subjected to the process of manufacture. The essen- 

 tial principle also contains much nitrogen. The fat known as 

 cocoa butter has this excellence, that it does not become rancid 

 after exposure to air. But the large proportion in which this exists 

 renders cocoa heavy and" oppressive to a weak stomach, and thus 

 unsuitable to the dyspeptic or bilious. Its nutritive value strongly 

 recommends it for general use. 



DIET FOR ALL DISEASES. 



Many patients have lost their lives by the use of improper 

 food, in typhoid fever, dysentery, flux, inflammation c f the stomach 

 and bowels, and other diseases, while there are others wherein cures 

 have been prevented or retarded from the same cause. It is there- 

 fore deemed important to append an article here giving directions 

 how food should be prepared for all diseases. 



DIET FOK BRIGHT'S DISEASE. 



The function of the kidneys is to eliminate from the blood 

 products that are useless in the changes and assimilation of food, 

 and materials that have become effete in the disintegration of the 

 tissues, i. e., the waste matters of the body that do not pass 

 through the intestinal canal or the skin. If these were allowed 

 to remain in the blood they would poison it and produce death. 

 When eliminated they constitute urea and pass off in the urine ; 

 when retained they cause uremic poisoning. If tlie kidneys are in 

 an unhealthy condition, as in B right's Disease, the urea is not eli- 

 minated. Now the amount of urinarv matter to be thus eliminated 



