340 DIET FOR RHEUMATISM. 



has come at last from England and appears in an article entitled 

 " Food in Neurosal Affections.'" The substance of it comes to this: 

 Stop eating lean meat and live on lish and bread and butter. 



" Experience," the author says, " has taught us the fact, even 

 before physiological chemistry could tell us why, that fat ar,d fish 

 are the foods which are especiaHy indicated. A phosphoric fat has 

 to be supplied to the nervous system." 



It is an old fallacy, of course, that the living exclusively on fish 

 is conducive to intellectuality, but although fish-eating cannot make 

 philosophers of fishermen it does not follow that this phosphorescent 

 meat is not useful to recuperate exhausted nerve. The main feature, 

 however, is not the fish but the fat. Lecithin, that conspicuous 

 component of brain and nerve, a substance unknown to the vegetable 

 world, is a fat. Butter, cream and cod-liver oil and milk, fat bacon 

 and the yolk of eggs should constitute the chief factor in the combi- 

 nation diet. Fish furnishes the phosphorus and it also furnishes 

 sufficient nitrogen for support. 



" When we consider," says the article, " that the pabulum of the 

 nervous system is a phosphorised fat we can comprehend why the 

 plan of treating cases of cerebral exhaustion by liberal quantities of 

 lean meat has turned out a failure. Albuminoids do not supply the 

 required material for the intended purpose, while in their metabol- 

 ism they furnish matters which may be called hepatic mal-products 

 or liver stuffs which possess very irritating and toxic properties 

 as regards the brain, consequently a highly nitrogenized dietary is 

 not only without advantages but actually possesses positive draw- 

 backs. The brain is not fed thereby, but in its weak condition is 

 annoyed and vexed by these liver stuffs." 



An American patient is cited who lost his bilious headache by 

 striking out of his diet the flesh of all animals except fish. "He 

 lives on a milk and farinaceous dietary with butter plus the fish." 

 It is to be noted that the physicians' main reliance thus far in nearly 

 all cases of weakness from whatever cause has been upon the albu- 

 menoids. 



DIET FOB RHEUMATISM. 



In acute rheumatism the maintenance of a steady, equable 

 temperature is of far greater importance than purity of air or even 

 strict attention to diet. Still nitrogenous, restorative food really 

 retards recovery and if resumed too soon during convalescence will 

 cause relapse. Meat taken in any form, solid or liquid, is converted 

 into lactic acid, the excess of which characterizes rheumatism, and 

 the acidity in the perspiration and urine is markedly increased. 

 The more fleshy and red the meat, the worse for the patient. A 

 non -nitrogenous diet, except in broken-down, debilitated constitu- 

 tions, or where serious nervous or heart complications exist, has beer 



