322 DIET FOR DIABETES. 



lowing fish may be allowed at the principal meal, which should be 

 early in the day; cod, whiting and liaddock. Their livers, however, 

 must be avoided, as also must oysters, salmon, salmon-trout, her- 

 rings and other oily fish. In fact, all fatty or oily substances and 

 all vegetable articles of food and drink containing starch and sugar 

 must be avoided with the most scrupulous care, for relapse at this 

 stage will frequently prove serious if not intractable. The chief 

 articles of food prohibited are fat, oils, bacon, pork, butter, cream, 

 milk, cheese and yolk of eggs, white or brown bread, pastry, flour in 

 every form and any quantity, macaroni, vermicelli, rice, sago, 

 tapioca, arrow-root, peas, pea-meal, beans, bean-meal, Indian corn- 

 flour, potatoes, full-grown French beans and scarlet runners, turnips, 

 carrots, parsnips, artichokes, cauliflower, cabbages, asparagus, 

 cucumber, squash and all kinds of fruit in any form, except olives 

 in pickle. All saccharine drinks must also be avoided, including 

 ale, beer, stout, porter, wines ; if alcoholic drinks be necessary, the 

 diabetic may have the very best pale French brandy, or finest 

 Scotch whisky, or good claret or Carlowitz, but they are generally 

 objectionable. Cocoa free from fat and sugar, tea or coffee without 

 sugar, may be allowed for breakfast. The period during which it 

 will be necessary to adhere to this transitional diet varies very much. 



A more permanent dietary is developed out of the transitional 

 by the addition of a much greater variety of animal and vegetable 

 food. But pork, bacon and cheese, bread, pastry, and substances 

 into which flour enters, all starchy products, and sugar in every 

 form must still be most carefully avoided. Indulgence in prohibited 

 articles, at least before a long and indefinable period has elapsed 

 after convalescence, will most certainly be followed by a return of 

 the disease, which then becomes more intractable than on its first 

 invasion. 



A few hints may be given in connection with dietetic treatment. 

 Patients should eat slowly and masticate their food thoroughly, and 

 take their meals frequently and moderately, for the digestive organs 

 partake of the general weakness of the system and cannot fulfil 

 their functions so readily as when in health. Their powers should 

 therefore not be taxed by quick and excessive eating. 



The body should be kept warm by flannel next the skin; gentle 

 exercise in the open air should be frequently taken in fine weather; 

 the tendency to constipation should be counteracted by the use of 

 suitable medicines. 



Dr. Charteris has adduced some evidence to show that dieting 

 is of less importance than the maintenance of the temperature of 

 the lungs by preventing the access of cold external air. The tem- 

 perature is maintained by wearing a respirator alone during the 

 day and covering respirator and nostrils with a knitted woollen 

 cloth during the night. The following dietary is announced: 

 Breakfast; eggs, fish, one pint of tea, and biscuits. Dinner; steak, 

 cabbage, biscuits. Supper; tea, milk, biscuits. Three pints of 



