TREATMENT OF DISEASEH. 149 



plate for a short time ; add cream or good milk. This dish rests easy on the 

 stomach, and is very pleasant. 



Remarks. — Tliis, of course, is not understood to be toasted, but in its simple 

 state — to toast bread makes it much the nature of freshly baked, which is not 

 good for the healthy, and especially bad for dyspeptics or the debilitated from 

 any disease or cause whatever. 



5. Dyspepsia and Weak Stomach, The Value of Milk and 

 Lime-Water for.— Milk and lime-water are now frequently prescribed by 

 physicians in cases of dyspepsia and weakness of the stomach, and in some 

 cases are said to prove very beneficial. Many persons who think good bread 

 and milk a luxury, frequently hesitate to eat it, for the reason that the milk will 

 not digest readily; sourness of the stomach will often follow. But experience 

 proves that lime-water and milk are not only food and medicine, at an early 

 period of life, but also at a later, when, as in the case of infants, the functions 

 of digestion and assimilation have been seriously impaired. A stomach taxed 

 by gluttony, irritated by improper food, inflamed by alcohol, enfeebled by dis- 

 ease, or otherwise unfitted for its duties — as is shown by various symptoms 

 attendant upon indigestion, dyspepsia, diarrhea, dysentery and fever — will 

 resume its work, and do it energetically, on an exclusive diet of bread and milk 

 and lime-water. A goblet of cow's milk may have 3 to, 4 table-spoonfuls of 

 lime-water added to it with good effect. 



These ideas are fully endorsed by Dr. E. N. Chapman, who presented the 

 following valuable notes on the use of milk and lime-water for invalids, to the 

 Medical Society of the State of New York. He says: " I have used milk and 

 lime-water for years as a diet with my patients with great success, particularly in 

 cases involving nerve centres, that are acknowledged to be little under the 

 command of the accepted modes of treatment, such, for instance, as marasmus 

 (a wasting of flesh), anemia (debility from poor blood), paralysis, indigestion, 

 neuralgia, cholera, dementia (insanity), and alcoholism. Also in cases where 

 the nutritive functions are at fault, milk with a pinch of salt, being rendered 

 very acceptable to the stomach by the limc, is the most digestible and nourish, 

 ing food that can be given. It allays gastric (stomach) and intestinal irritability., 

 offers a duly prepared chyle to the absorbents, supplies the blood with all the 

 elements of nutrition, institutes healthy tissue changes, stimulates the secreting 

 and excreting glands, and, in a word, provides nature with the material to sus- 

 tain herself in her contest with disease. * * * Milk, acted on with lime- 

 water, has a range of application almost as extensive as disease itself, whatever 

 its character and whoever the patient. " 



Remarks. — I trust that enough has now been said to satisfy everybody of 

 the value of milk in disease, and I will add that I know it to be equally valuable 

 as a regular family diet. 



6. Dyspeptic Invalids or Weakly Children, Oatmeal Gruel 

 for. — A Mrs. " H. K.", of Evanston, Wyoming Territory, m writing to the 

 Blade, upon what Mi's. Jane F. Hollingsworth said of strained oatmeal gniel for 

 tavalids, gives her own experience with it for children. She saya; 



