NURSING THE SICK. 397 



its mode of action? " Not simply nutrient one-fourth ounce of 

 the most nutritive material cannot nearly replace the daily wear and 

 tear of the tissues in any circumstances. Possibly," he says, " it 

 belongs to a new denomination of remedies." 



" It has been observed that a small quantity of beef -tea, added 

 to other articles of nutrition, augments their power out of all pro- 

 portion to the additional amount of solid matter. 



"The reason why jelly should be innutritions, and beef -tea 

 nutritious to the sick, is a secret yet undiscovered, but it clearly 

 shows that careful observation of the sick is the only clue to the best 

 dietary. 



" Chemistry has, as yet, afforded little insight into the dieting 

 of the sick; all that chemistry can tell us is the amount of carbon- 

 iferous and nitrogenous elements discovered in different dietetic 

 articles. It has given us lists of dietetic substances, arranged in the 

 order of their richness in one or other of these principles ; but that 

 is all. In the great majority of cases the stomach of the patient is 

 guided by other principles of selection than merely the amount of 

 carbon or nitrogen in the diet. No doubt in this, as in other things, 

 nature has very definite rules for her guidance, but these rules can 

 only be ascertained by the most careful observation at the bedside. 

 She there teaches us that living chemistry, the chemistry of repara- 

 tion, is something different from the chemistry of the laboratory. 

 Organic chemistry is useful, as all knowledge is, when we come face 

 to face with nature; but it by no means follows that we should learn 

 in the laboratory any one of the reparative processes going on in 

 disease. 



" Again, the nutritive power of milk and of the preparations 

 from rank is very much undervalued; there is nearly as much 

 nourishment in half a pint of milk as there is in a quarter of a 

 pound of meat. But this is not the whole question or nearly the 

 whole. The main question is, what the patient's stomach can 

 assimilate or derive nourishment from, and of this the patient's 

 stomach is the sole judge. The diet which will keep the healthy 

 man healthy, will kill the sick one. The same beef, which is the 

 most nutritive of all meat, and which nourishes the healthy man, is 

 the least nourishing of all food to the sick man, whose half-dead 

 stomach can assimilate no part of it, that is, make no food out of 

 it. On a diet of beef -tea, healthy men on the other hand speedily 

 lose their strength. 



" I have known patients live for many months without touching 

 bread, because they could not eat bakers' bread. Home-made bread 

 or brown bread is a most important article of diet for many patients. 

 The use of laxatives may be entirely superseded by it. Oat-cake is 

 another." Scudder. 



You should never give tea or coffee to the sick, as a rule, after 

 five o'clock in the afternoon. Sleeplessness in the early night is, 

 from excitement generally, and is increased by tea or coffee; sleep- 



