DIET FOR FEVERS AND INFLAMMATIONS. 333 



especially valuable; also good milk in large quantity, chicken-broth, 

 etc. This provision of fresh meat and vegetables, combined with 

 the use of pure, soft water for bathing, will be found very helpful 

 in the relief of all cutaneous disorders. 



DIET FOR FEVERS AND INFLAMMATIONS. 



There was once an adage in vogue, " Stuff a cold and starve a 

 fever." That was when the feverish nature of a cold was not under- 

 stood, and when the importance of sustaining the constitution 

 when in a feverish or inflamed state was not recognized. The feed- 

 ing of fevers is now generally acknowledged to be an important 

 auxiliary in the treatment of them. Indeed, the celebrated Dr 

 Graves said that he desired no higher praise after his death than 

 that he fed fevers. In this, however, there is nothing new, for the 

 value of nutrition for those who were suffering from them was 

 observed in the earliest times. Hippocrates was so decided in his 

 opinion on this subject that in his treatise on the management of 

 acute diseases he lays stress on the administration of wine and 

 barley-gruel, and describes how the latter is to be prepared. The 

 time of dietetic revival is, however, but recent, for until the last 

 generation it was considered necessary to starve out the devouring 

 name of fever or inflammation by refraining from feeding it, French 

 physicians going to the extreme by depriving invalids of food alto- 

 gether. The reaction began when Dr. Graves maintained that to 

 feed a fever was essential to its cure. Still it must not be supposed 

 that food is to be indiscriminately or outrageously given. The great 

 art of daily nourishing fever-patients consists in giving a frequent, 

 almost continuous supply of liquid nutriment containing very 

 soluble aliments in a dilute form. Stress must be laid on almost 

 every one of these terms. The supply of food must be frequent, 

 almost continuous ; it must be liquid, requiring no effort of masti- 

 cation, making as little demand as possible on the. digestive func- 

 tions; the aliments it contains must be of a concentrated character, 

 of pure and highly nutritive quality, and yet in a dilute form, in 

 such a condition as to be very soluble by the digestive secretions 

 and easily assimilated by the vessels and glands. Such a supply 

 excludes solid food and large quantities of food at a time. 



Preeminent in the treatment of fevers is the free allowance of 

 pure cold water. The patient craves it and he may take it in fre- 

 quently repeated mouthfuls, as it is nature calling loudly for a 

 simple and cooling fluid. Milk is the most suitable food. It is 

 what has been provided for the weakest organism and contains all 

 that is required for nourishment. It is the sheet-anchor in typhoid 

 fever. If half a quarter of a pint be given every hour, or a quarter 

 of a pint or even more every two hours, a fair amount of nutriment 

 will be imbibed. The administration of milk will, however, require 



