112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



undergone massage with incarceration, and found temporary sal- 

 vation in sipping hot water, pass from one consultant to another 

 seeking the last new paradox in dietetics. They will continue to 

 do so, and the more if they fall into the hands of those who give 

 them really judicious advice. They dislike that, and it is indeed 

 seldom helpful to such persons. In this brief communication I 

 shall have nothing to say in respect of them. 



We may fairly remark that we are in danger of being per- 

 plexed by the number of patent and proprietary articles of food 

 daily brought under our notice. The chemists, especially the 

 Continental and American, try to help us in our daily work by 

 contriving the most subtle, and often palatable, preparations of 

 nutrient materials. And, not content with this, they would fain 

 abolish almost the entire Pharmacopoeia, and offer food and physic 

 in one ; aiding themselves in this bold effort by the most fantastic 

 and obtrusive advertisements, which pass one's best ingenuity to 

 escape from. Strange to say, they compel attention from persons 

 who should know better, and should use calm judgment in sweep- 

 ing most of them aside. So it happens that one frequently finds 

 many of these vaunted preparations in use by persons who have 

 not even a bare knowledge of their qualities and powers for good 

 or evil. 



The mischief of all this in respect of foods and new drugs is, 

 as I have before now stated, that the practitioners in trying, as 

 they think, to keep pace with the times, lose their hold of well- 

 approved methods and therapeutic agents, which drop out to make 

 way for something new and unapproved. They thus fail in the 

 art of medicine, which I make bold to say is less well established 

 to-day than it was, in many respects, half a century ago, and 

 chiefly because of this pursuit of novelties. 



We have witnessed many changes of opinion respecting some 

 of the commonest articles of diet for the sick. The old view, that 

 calves'-feet jelly was of exceeding nutritive value, was at one time 

 so controverted that the jelly ceased to be much used. It is now 

 sanctioned as having a place in dietetics, and I believe it may be 

 safely regarded as a temporary form of nourishment of no incon- 

 siderable value. 



Beef-tea has been in and out of repute, but we have, or should 

 have, no doubt now as to its stimulant and reparative properties. 

 We can not think lightly of it as commonly prepared, for it can 

 certainly prove harmful, when not desirable, as in the case of 

 rheumatic fever. I believe it is right to withhold it in such cases. 

 Again, it is so far apt to act as an aperient that it is best not to 

 employ it in enteric fever, or in diarrhoea, when the bowels are 

 in an irritable condition. Mutton, veal, or chicken essences can, 

 however, be used, having no such aperient action. We have to 



