742 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



may also be recommended. Perhaps the most whole- 

 some of all foods for such a case is rice, either boiled 

 rice, toasted rice flakes, or toasted rice biscuit. Eice 

 is recommended in this disease because of the small 

 amount of alkaline salts which it contains, which ren- 

 ders it the least irritating and taxing to the kidneys of 

 any known food. The best authorities now agree that 

 no food at all should be given for one to three days. 

 Water should be administered freely — three teaspoons- 

 ful every hour — but no food of any kind should be 

 given until the stools improve in character. When the 

 fecor of the stools disappears, then rice water or bar- 

 ley water may be given in small quantity. In some 

 cases, the white of an egg dissolved in water given in 

 spoonful doses seems to be very well tolerated. Rice 

 gruel is one of the very best foods which can be given 

 in cases of this sort. It is highly important to with- 

 hold milk for some days. Buttermilk is tolerated much 

 more readily than ordinary milk. A number of French 

 physicians regard buttermilk as almost a panacea in 

 cases of this sort. Yogurt buttermilk is to be pre- 

 ferred to ordinary buttermilk. Yogurt buttermilk may 

 be prepared from Yogurt tablets by adding the tablets 

 to boiled milk and keeping it at a temperature of 105 

 or 106 degrees for ten or twelve hours. When the 

 bowel trouble has ceased, a larger variety of food may 

 be taken, such as toasted rice flakes, toasted rice bis- 

 cuit, gruel prepared from toasted rice meal, boiled rice, 

 zwieback or breakfast toast, granola, granuto, malt 

 honey or meltose, granose biscuit, granose flakes and 

 ricoco ; and later, when the bowel action is well estab- 

 lished, malted nuts may be used to great advantage. 

 The use of malted nuts may be continued for months. 



