ON DIETETICS. 
441 
A suppurating surface of any extent is usually associated 
with considerable debility, sometimes with dangerous and 
even fatal prostration; the healing process may proceed satis¬ 
factorily for a time, and suddenly be arrested for a time, a 
general languor affects the system although the appetite may 
remain good. The proper dietetics in such instances will 
include not only nutritious but stimulating food ; thus if the 
digestion remains active, crushed beans may be allowed, with 
oats, good hay, and any preparations containing condiments; 
the therapeutic treatment at the same time will principally 
consist of tonics and cardiac stimulants, the object being to 
increase the energy of the circulatory and nervous systems, 
as well as to furnish abundant material for the reparative 
process. 
Under extreme prostration digestion is invariably sus¬ 
pended, consequently no advantage can possibly follow the 
introduction of food into the system at such a time, if we 
except aliment of the blandest and most soluble kind. The 
practice of giving a horse an extra proportion of oats, and 
probably beans, after an extra amount of work has produced 
absolute exhaustion, is, to say the least, extremely injudicious; 
the animal would be far better left entirely without, as an al¬ 
ternative, although, as we have stated, a bland soluble and diet, 
as well-cooked gruel, will be beneficial, and will answer all 
the purposes of a heavy meal, sufficiently stimulating the 
stomach without occasioning any unpleasant results. 
From the few illustrations we have given, it will be seen 
how much depends upon the proper arrangement of the daily 
food. It is not within our province to discuss the principles 
of feeding, in reference to healthy subjects, but the line of 
separation between the healthy and the sick is occasionally 
so lightly defined, that it may be difficult to recognise it 
at all. 
Many cases of deranged digestion, hardly deserving the 
name of disease, nevertheless account for emaciation and 
debility, even in association with a ravenous appetite and a 
liberal dietary. No delusion is more popular than the one 
which assumes that plenty of food, and good condition, are in 
the relation of cause and effect; how often do we find a 
subject improving upon a fourth part of the food to which he 
has just previously been accustomed, but which has been of 
literally no nutritive value, in consequence of derangement, 
apparently to a very slight extent, of the digestive functions. 
During inactivity a full diet, as a matter of necessity, leads to 
plethora, or else deranged secretion and debility; hence, even 
in health , the food should be carefully proportioned to the 
