RECIPES FOR PANADA.

Broth Panada.—Use beef or chicken broth in place of water, and proceed the same as in Egg Panada, omitting the egg.

Chicken Panada.—Take a cupful of the white meat of chicken, pounded to a paste in a mortar, and half a cup of whole-wheat crust or zwieback crumbs. Add sufficient chicken broth to make a thick gruel. Season with salt, boil up for a few minutes, and serve hot.

Egg Panada.—Put two ounces of light, whole-wheat crusts into a pint of cold water in a granite-ware stewpan; simmer gently for three quarters of an hour, stirring occasionally. Season with a spoonful of sweet cream and a little salt, then stir in the well-beaten yolk of an egg, and serve.

Milk Panada.—Heat a pint of milk to boiling, then allow it to cool. Add two ounces of nice, light, whole-wheat crusts, and simmer for half an hour, stirring frequently. Season with a little sugar, if allowed. Granola may be used in place of the crusts, if preferred.

Raisin Panada.—Boil a half cup of raisins in a half pint of water. Break a slice of zwieback into fragments in a bowl. Add a well-beaten egg and a teaspoonful of sugar. Pour in the raisins, water and all, and beat very thoroughly.

For invalids able to digest solid food, rice, cracked wheat, Graham grits, oatmeal, barley, farina and other grains may be prepared and cooked as previously directed in the chapter on Grains.

The various cooked preparations of grains—granola, wheatena, avenola, wheat gluten and gluten meal—manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., form excellent articles of diet for many invalids, when served with hot milk or cream, or prepared in the form of mush. Several recipes for their use have already been given in preceding chapters; the following are a few additional ones:—

Gluten Mush.—Heat together a cup of thin cream and three cups of water; when boiling, sift in lightly with the fingers, stirring continuously meanwhile, enough wheat gluten to make a mush of the desired consistency. Boil up once and serve. A few blanched or roasted almonds may be stirred in just before serving, if desired.

Tomato Gluten.—Heat a pint of stewed tomato, which has been rubbed through a fine colander to remove the seeds, to boiling, add salt to season, and three tablespoonfuls of gluten meal. Boil together for a moment until thickened, and serve hot.

Tomato Gluten No. 2.—Prepare the same as the preceding, using five tablespoonfuls of the gluten meal, and seasoning with two tablespoonfuls of rather thick, sweet cream.

All meats for the sick should be prepared in the very simplest way, served with the plainest possible dressing, and without the use of condiments other than salt.

Broiled Steak.—Take a half pound of round steak and a slice of tenderloin; wipe well with a clean, wet cloth. Have a clear fire; place the meat in an open wire broiler or on a gridiron over the coals, and cook, turning as often as you can count ten, for four or five minutes, if the slices are about one inch thick; then with a lemon squeezer squeeze the juice from the round steak over the tenderloin, season with a little salt, and serve at once on a hot plate.

Chicken.—For an invalid, the breast of a tender chicken broiled quickly over hot coals is best. For directions for broiling chicken seepage 406.

Chicken Jelly.—Dress a small chicken. Disjoint, break or pound the bones, and cut the meat into half-inch pieces. Remove every particle of fat possible. Cover with cold water, heat very slowly, and simmer gently until the meat is in rags, and the liquid reduced about one half. Strain off the liquor, cool, and remove all the fat. To make the broth more clear, add the shell and white of an egg, then reheat slowly, stirring all the time until hot. Strain through a fine cloth laid inside of a colander. Salt and a little lemon may be added as seasoning. Pour into small cups, and cool.

Minced Chicken.—Stew the breast of a young chicken until tender; mince fine with a sharp knife. Thicken the liquor in which it was stewed with a little flour, add salt and a little cream if allowed, then the minced chicken, and serve hot on zwieback, softened with cream as directed in the chapter on Breakfast Dishes.

Mutton Chop.—Select a chop containing a large tenderloin: cut thick, and broil for eight or ten minutes as directed for beef steak. Season lightly with salt, and serve hot.

Minced Steak.—Mince some nice, juicy steak with a chopping knife, or in a sausage-cutter, rejecting as much of the fiber as possible; make into small cakes and broil the same as steak. Salt lightly when done, and for dressing use a little beef juice prepared as directed onpage 427. It may be thickened with a little flour as for gravy, if preferred.

Scraped Steak.—Take a small piece of nice, juicy steak, and with a blunt case-knife or tablespoon, scrape off all the pulp, being careful toget none of the fibers. Press the pulp together in the form of patties, and broil quickly over glowing coals. Salt lightly, and serve hot. It is better to be as rare as the patient can take it. Instead of butter, turn a spoonful or two of thick, hot beef juice over the steak, if any dressing other than salt is required.

Floated Egg.—Separate the white from the yolk, and drop the yolk, taking great care not to break it, into boiling, salted water. Cook until hard and mealy. In the meantime, beat the white of the egg until stiff and firm. When the yolk is cooked, remove it from the water with a skimmer. Let the water cease to boil, then dip the beaten white in spoonfuls on the top of the scalding water, allowing it to remain for a second or two until coagulated, but not hardened. Arrange the white in a hot egg saucer, and place the cooked yolk in the center, or serve on toast. This makes a very pretty, as well as appetising dish, if care is taken to keep the yolk intact.

Gluten Meal Custard.—Beat together thoroughly, one pint of rich milk, one egg, and four tablespoonfuls of gluten meal. Add a little salt if desired, and cook with the dish set in another containing boiling water, until the custard has set. Or, turn the custard into cups, which place in a dripping pan partly filled with hot water, and cook in a moderate oven until the custard is set.

Gluten Custard.—Into a quart of boiling milk stir four tablespoonfuls of wheat gluten moistened with a little of the milk, which may be reserved for the purpose. Allow it to cook until thickened. Cool to lukewarm temperature, and add three well-beaten eggs, and a trifle of salt, if desired. Turn into cups, and steam over a kettle of boiling water until the custard is set.

Steamed Eggs.—Break an egg into an egg saucer, sauce-dish, or patty pan, salt very slightly, and steam until the white has just set. In this way, it will retain its shape perfectly, and not be mixed with the few drops of water so annoying to invalids, and so hard to avoid in dishing a poached egg from water.

Soft Custard.—Boil some milk, then cool it to 180°, add three whipped eggs to each quart of milk, and keep at the temperature of 180° for fifteen or twenty minutes. The object is to coagulate the eggs without producing the bad effect of exposure to a high temperature.

Raw Eggs.—Break a fresh egg into a glass, add a tablespoonful of sugar, and heat to a stiff froth; a little cold water may be added if liked.

White Of Egg.—Stir the white of an egg into a glass of cold water, or water as warm as it can be without coagulating the egg, and serve.

White of Egg and Milk.—The white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth and stirred into a glass of milk, forms a nourishing food for persons of weak digestion.

In many fevers and acute diseases, but little food is required, and that of a character which merely appeases hunger and quenches thirst, without stimulation and without affording much nourishment.

Preparations from sago, tapioca, and other farinaceous substances are sometimes serviceable for this purpose. Oranges, grapes, and other perfectly ripened and juicy fruits are also most excellent. They are nature's own delicacies, and serve both for food and drink. They should not, however, be kept in the sick room, but preserved in some cool place, and served when needed, as fresh and in as dainty a manner as possible. Like all food provided for the sick, they should be arranged to please the eye as well as the palate. The capricious appetite of an invalid will often refuse luscious fruit from the hand of a nurse, which would have been gladly accepted had it been served on dainty china, with a clean napkin and silver.

The juice of the various small fruits and berries forms a basis from which may be made many refreshing drinks especially acceptable to the dry, parched mouth of a sick person.

Fruit juices can be prepared with but little trouble. For directions seepage 209.

Beverages from fruit juices are prepared by using a small quantity of the juice, and sufficient cold water to dilute it to the taste. If it is desirable to use such a drink for a sick person in some household where fruit juices have not been put up for the purpose, the juice may be obtained from a can of strawberries, raspberries, or other small fruit, by turning the whole into a coarse cloth and straining off the juice; or atablespoonful of currant or other jelly may be dissolved in a tumbler of warm water, and allowed to cool. Either will make a good substitute for the prepared fruit juice, though the flavor will be less delicate. The hot beverages and many of the cold ones given in the chapter on Beverages will be found serviceable for the sick, as will also the following additional ones:—

Acorn Coffee.—Select plump, round, sweet acorns. Shell, and brown in an oven; then grind in a coffee-mill, and use as ordinary coffee.

Almond Milk—Blanch a quarter of a pound of shelled almonds by pouring over them a quart of boiling water, and when the skins soften, rubbing them off with a coarse towel. Pound the almonds in a mortar, a few at a time, adding four or five drops of milk occasionally, to prevent their oiling. About one tablespoonful of milk in all will be sufficient. When finely pounded, mix the almonds with a pint of milk, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and a little piece of lemon rind. Place the whole over the fire to simmer for a little time. Strain, if preferred, and serve cold.

Apple Beverage.—Pare and slice very thin a juicy tart apple into a china bowl. Cover with boiling water, put a saucer over the bowl, and allow the water to get cold. Strain and drink. Crab apples may be used in the same way.

Apple Beverage No. 2.—Bake two large, sour apples, and when tender, sprinkle a tablespoonful of sugar over them, and return to the oven until the sugar is slightly browned. Break and mash the apples with a silver spoon, pour over them a pint of boiling water; cover and let stand until cold; then strain and serve.

Apple Toast Water.—Break a slice of zwieback into small pieces, and mix with them two or three well-baked tart apples. Pour over all a quart of boiling water, cover, and let stand until cold, stirring occasionally. When cold, strain, add sugar to sweeten if desired, and serve.

Baked Milk.—Put a quart of new milk in a stone jar, tie a white paper over it, and let it stand in a moderately heated oven eight or ten hours. It becomes of a creamy consistency.

Barley Lemonade.—Put a half cup of pearl barley into a quart of cold water, and simmer gently until the water has become mucilaginous and quite thick. This will take from an hour to an hour and a half. The barley will absorb most of the water, but the quantity given should make a teacupful of good, thick barley water. Add to this two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice and a tablespoonful of sugar. Let it get cold before serving. By returning the barley to the stewpan with another quart of cold water,and simmering for an hour or an hour and a half longer, a second cap of barley water may be obtained, almost as good as the first.

Barley and Fruit Drink.—Prepare a barley water as above, and add to each cupful a tablespoonful or two of cranberry, grape, raspberry, or any tart fruit syrup. The pure juice sweetened will answer just as well; or a little fruit jelly may be dissolved and added.

Barley Milk.—Wash two tablespoonfuls of pearl barley in cold water until the water is clear. Put it to cook in a double boiler, with a quart of milk, and boil till the milk is reduced to a pint. Strain off the milk, and sweeten if desired.

Cranberry Drink.—Mash carefully selected, ripe cranberries thoroughly in an earthen dish, and pour boiling water over them. Let the mixture stand until cold, strain off the water, and sweeten to taste. Barberries prepared in the same manner make a nice drink.

Currantade.—Mash thoroughly a pint of ripe, red currants, and one half the quantity of red raspberries; add sugar to sweeten and two quarts of cold water. Stir, strain, cool on ice, and serve.

Crust Coffee.—Brown slices of Graham bread in a slow oven until very ark in color. Break in pieces and roll fine with a rolling pin. A quantity of this material may be prepared at one time and stored in glass fruit cans for use. When needed, pour a cupful of actively boiling water over a dessertspoonful of the prepared crumbs, let it steep for a few moments, then strain and serve.

Egg Cream.—Beat the white of an egg to a stiff froth, add one tablespoonful of white sugar, then beat again. Next add the yolk, and beat; then a tablespoonful of milk, one of cold water, and one of any fruit juice desired.

Egg Cream No. 2.—Prepare as above, using two tablespoonfuls of water instead of one of water and one of milk, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice in place of other fruit juice.

Egg Cream No. 3.—Beat the yolk of a freshly laid egg with a tablespoonful of sugar until it is light and creamy; add to this, one half cup of hot milk and stir in lightly the stiffly beaten white of the egg. Serve at once.

Egg Lemonade.—Beat the white of an egg to a stiff froth, then mix with it the juice of a small lemon, and one tablespoonful of sugar. Add a half pint of cold water. Or, beat together with an egg beater a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of sugar, the white of an egg and a cup of cold water, until thoroughly mingled, then serve at once.

Flaxseed Tea.—Take an ounce of whole flaxseed, half an ounce of crushed licorice root, an ounce of refined sugar, and four tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. Pour a quart of boiling water over them; keep near the fire for four hours, and then strain off the liquid. The flaxseed shouldnot be crushed, as the mucilage is in the outer part of the kernel, and if braised, the boiling water will extract the oil of the seed, and render the decoction nauseous. Make fresh daily.

Gum Arabic Water.—Pour a pint of boiling water over an ounce of clean gum arabic. When dissolved, add the juice of one lemon and a teaspoonful of sugar, and strain.

Hot Water.—Put good, fresh water into a perfectly clean granite-ware kettle, already warmed; let it come to a boil very quickly, and use at once. Do not leave it to simmer until it has become insipid through the loss of the air which it contains.

Hot lemonade.—Put in a glass a thin slice of lemon and the juice of half a small lemon, being careful to remove all seeds; mix with it one dessertspoonful of white sugar, and fill the glass with boiling water. Or, remove the peel of a lemon in very thin parings, turn one pint of boiling water over them, letting it stand for a few moments covered. Remove the peel, add the juice of a lemon and one tablespoonful of sugar, and serve.

Irish Moss Lemonade.—Soak one fourth of a cup of Irish moss in cold water until it begins to soften; then work it free from sand and tiny shells likely to be on it, and thoroughly wash. Put it in a granite-ware basin, and pour over it two cups of boiling water. Leave on the back of the range where it will keep hot, but not boil, for half an hour; strain, add the juice of one lemon, and sugar to taste. Drink hot or cold, as preferred.

Orangeade.—Rub lightly two ounces of lump sugar on the rind of two nice, fresh oranges, to extract the flavor; put this sugar into a pitcher, to which add the juice expressed from the oranges, and that from one lemon. Pour over all one pint of cold water, stir thoroughly, and serve.

Plain Lemonade.—For one glass of lemonade squeeze the juice of half a small lemon into the glass; carefully remove all seeds and particles. Add a dessertspoonful of sugar, and fill the glass with cold water.

Slippery Elm Tea.—Pour boiling water over bits of slippery elm bark or slippery elm powder, cool, and strain, if desired, a little lemon juice and sugar may be added to flavor.

Toast Water.—Toast a pint of whole-wheat or Graham bread crusts very brown, but do not burn. Cover with a pint of cold water. Let it stand an hour, strain, and use. Sugar and a little cream may be added if allowed.

Tamarind Water.—Boil four ounces of tamarinds and the same of raisins slowly, in three quarts of water, for fifteen or twenty minutes, or until the water is reduced nearly one fourth; strain while hot into a bowl with a small slice of lemon peel in it. Set away until cold before using.

For invalids who are able to partake of solid foods, the Breakfast Rolls, Whole-wheat Puffs, Beaten Biscuit, Crisps, and other unfermented breads, directions for the preparation of which are given in the chapter on Bread, will be found excellent.

The various crackers, wafers, and invalid foods manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., are also to be recommended. Zwieback, prepared as directed onpage 289, will be found serviceable and wholesome to be used with broths and gruels. It may be prepared so as to look especially tempting by cutting off the crust of the bread, and cutting the slice into fancy shapes with a cookie-cutter before toasting. In cases where their use is allowable, many of the various toasts given under the head of Breakfast Dishes will be relished.

Diabetic Biscuit.—Make a stiff dough of Graham or entire-wheat flour and water. Knead thoroughly, and let it stand three hours; then place on a sieve under a faucet, turn a stream of water over the dough, and wash out the starch, kneading and working with the hands so that all portions of the dough will be equally washed. When the starch has been all washed out, as will be indicated by the water running off clear, the dough will be a rubber-like, glutinous mass. It may then be cut into long strips, and these divided into equal-sized pieces or cubes. Place the pieces on shallow baking pans in a rather hot oven, which, after a short time, should be allowed to cool to moderate heat, and bake for two hours, when they should be of a dark, rich brown color and light and crisp throughout. If tough, they need rebaking. If the oven is too hot, the pieces will puff up, becoming mere hollow shells; if not sufficiently hot, they will not rise properly.

Diabetic Biscuit No. 2.—Prepare a dough and wash out the starch as in the preceding. Add coarse middlings so that the dough can be rolled into thin cakes, and bake.

Gluten Meal Gems.—Beat together one half cup of ice water, one half cup of thick, sweet cream, and one egg; then add one cup and a tablespoonful of the gluten meal prepared by the Sanitarium Food Co. Turn into slightly heated gem irons, and bake in a moderately hot oven from one half to three fourths of an hour.

Invalids whose digestion will allow of other than the plainest foods will find most of the desserts made with fruits and those with fruits and grains given in the chapter on Desserts, excellent for their use. The following are a few additional recipes of a similar character:—

Arrowroot Jelly.—Rub two heaping teaspoonfuls of arrowroot smooth in a very little cold water, and stir it into a cupful of boiling water, in which should be dissolved two teaspoonfuls of sugar. Stir until clear, allowing it to boil all the time; lastly, add a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Serve cold, with cream and sugar if allowed.

Arrowroot Blancmange.—Rub two and a half tablespoonfuls of best arrowroot smooth in half a cup of cold milk, and stir slowly into two and one half cups of boiling new milk. When it begins to thicken, add three fourths of a cup of sugar, and cook, stirring constantly for several minutes. Turn into molds and cool. Serve with fruit juice or fruit sauces.

Currant Jelly.—Soak an ounce of Cox's gelatine in half a pint of cold water for fifteen minutes, then pour over it a teacupful of boiling water; strain, and add one pint at currant juice, one tablespoonful of sugar, and set on ice to cool.

Iceland Moss Jelly.—Wash about four ounces of moss very clean in lukewarm water. Boil slowly in a quart of cold water. When quite dissolved, strain it onto a tablespoonful of currant or raspberry jelly, stirring so as to blend the jelly perfectly with the moss. Turn into a mold, and cool.

Iceland Moss Blancmange.—Substitute milk for the water, and proceed as in the foregoing. Flavor with lemon or vanilla. Strain through a muslin cloth, turn into a mold, and let stand till firm and cold.

Orange Whey.—Add the juice of one sour orange to a pint of sweet milk. Heat very slowly until the milk is curded, then strain and cool.

White Custard.—Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, add a little salt if desired, and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. A bit of grated lemon rind may also be used for flavoring. Add lastly a pint of new milk, little by little, beating thoroughly all the while. Bake in cups set in a pan of hot water. When firm in the center, take out and set in a cool place.

Regimen is better than physic.—Voltaire.

Many dishes have induced many diseases.—Seneca.

Dr. Lyman Beecher tells the following story of his aunt, which well illustrates a popular notion that sick people should be fed with all sorts of dainties, no matter what the nature of the disease. When a boy eight or nine years of age, he was one day suffering in the throes of indigestion, as the result of having swallowed a large amount of indigestible mince pie. His kind-hearted aunt noticed the pale and distressed look on his face, and said to him, with genuine sympathy in her voice, "Lyman, you look sick. You may go into the pantry and help yourself to a nice piece of fruit cake just warm from the oven."

Fix on that course of life which is the most excellent, and custom will render it the most delightful.—Pythagoras.

A MERE indigestion can temporarily metamorphose the character. The eel stews of Mohammed II. kept the whole empire in a state of nervous excitement, and one of the meat-pies which King Philip failed to digest caused the revolt of the Netherlands.—Oswald.

Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality. Man's habitual words and acts imply that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they please. The fact is, that all breaches of the laws of health are physical sins.—Herbert Spencer.

Practical right and good conduct are much more dependent on health of body than on health of mind.—Prof. Schneider.

Dr. Abernathy's reply to the Duke of York when consulted about his health was, "Cut off the supplies and the enemy will soon leave the citadel."

Food for the aged and the very young

One of the first requisites of food for the aged is that it shall be easy of digestion, since with advancing age and decreasing physical energy, digestion and assimilation may be taken with impunity at an earlier period of life, overtax the enfeebled organs and prove highly injurious. The fact that the vital machinery is worn and weakened with age has led to the popular notion that old people require a stimulating diet as a "support" for their declining forces. That this is an error is apparent from the fact that stimulation either by drink or food lessens instead of reinforces vital strength, thus defeating the very purpose desired. Flesh food in quantities is a peculiarly unsuitable diet for the aged, not alone because it is stimulating, but because it produces a tendency to plethora, a condition which is especially inimical to the health of old persons. Eminent authorities on diet also reason that the loss of the teeth at this period, whereby thorough mastication of flesh food is done with difficulty, even with the best artificial aids, should be considered a sign that nature intends such foods to be discarded by the old.

A milk, grain, and fruit diet is undoubtedly the one best suited to the average person in old age. Vegetables and legumes in well-prepared soups may also be used to advantage. Directions for such soups, as also for cooking grains and grain products, will be found in the preceding pages.

The following bills of fare, one for each season of the year, will perhaps serve to illustrate how a varied and appetizing regimen may be provided without the use of flesh foods:—

In the selection of a dietary for elderly persons, much must depend upon their physical condition, the daily amount of exercise to which they are accustomed, their habits in earlier life, and a variety of other circumstances.

The quantity as well as quality of food for the aged should receive consideration. Diminished bodily activity and the fact that growth has ceased, render a smaller amount of food necessary to supply needs; and a decrease in the amount taken, in proportion to the age and the activity of the subject, must be made or health will suffer. The system will become clogged, the blood filled with imperfectly elaborated material, and gout, rheumatism, apoplexy, or other diseased conditions will be the inevitable result. The digestion of heavy meals is a tax upon vital powers at any time of life, but particularly so as age advances; and for him who has passed his first half-century, over-feeding is fraught with great danger. Cornaro, an Italian of noble family, contemporary with Titian in the sixteenth century, after reaching his eighty-third year wrote several essays upon diet and regimen for the aged, in one of which he says: "There are old lovers of feeding who say that it is necessary that they should eat and drink a great deal to keep up their natural heat, which is constantly diminishing as they advance in years; and that it is therefore their duty to eat heartily and of such things as please their palate, be they hot, cold, or temperate, and that if they were to lead a sober life, it would be a short one. To this I answer; Our kind Mother Nature, in order that old men may live to still greater age, has contrived matters so that they may be able to subsist on little, as I do; for large quantities of food cannot be digested by old and feeble stomachs."

Cornaro lived to be one hundred years old, doubtless owing largely to his simple, frugal habits.

A very large share of the mortality among young children results from dietetic errors which proper knowledge and care on the part of those who have them in charge might commonly avoid. From infancy to the age of twelve or eighteen months, milk is the natural and proper food. Milk contains all the food elements except starch, which cannot be digested by very young children, owing to the insufficient formation of digestive elements of the salivary secretion during the first few months. If the child is deprived of the milk provided by nature, the best artificial food is cow's milk; it, however, requires very careful selection and intelligent preparation. The animal from which the milk comes, should be perfectly healthy and well cared for. The quality of her food should also receive attention, as there is little doubt that disease is often communicated to infants by milk from cows improperly fed and cared for. An eminent medical authority offers the following important points on this subject:—

"The cow selected for providing the food for an infant should be between the ages of four and ten years, of mild disposition, and one which has been giving milk from four to eight weeks. She should be fed on good, clean grain, and hay free from must. Roots, if any are fed, should be of good quality, and she should have plenty of good clean water from a living spring or well. Her pasture should be timothy grass or native grass free from weeds; clover alone is bad. She should be cleaned and cared for like a carriage horse, and milked twice a day by the same person and at the same time. Some cows are unfit by nature for feeding infants."

Milk from the same animal should be used if possible. Changing from one cow's milk to another, or the use of such milk as is usually supplied by city milkmen, often occasions serious results. The extraction of the heat from the milk immediately after milking and before it is used or carried far, especially in hot weather, is essential. While the milkitself should be clean and pure, it should also be perfectly fresh and without any trace of decomposition. To insure all these requisites, besides great care in its selection, it must be sterilized, and if not intended for immediate use, bottled and kept in a cool place until needed. It is not safe to feed young children upon unsterilized milk that has stood a few hours. Even fresh milk from the cleanest cows, unless drawn into bottles and sealed at once, contains many germs. These little organisms, the cause of fermentation and decomposition, multiply very rapidly in milk, and as they increase, dangers from the use of the milk increase.

There is no doubt that cholera infantum and other digestive disturbances common among young children would be greatly lessened by the use of properly sterilized milk. Directions for sterilizing milk, and additional suggestions respecting points to be considered in its selection, are to be found in the chapter on Milk, etc.

Cow's milk differs from human milk in that it contains nearly three times as much casein, but only two thirds as much fat and three fourths as much sugar. Cow's milk is usually slightly acid, while human milk is alkaline. The casein of cow's milk forms large, hard curds, while that of breast milk forms fine, soft curds. These facts make it important that some modification be made in cow's milk to render it acceptable to the feeble stomach of an infant. Cases are rare where it is safe to feed a child under nine months of age on pure, undiluted cow's milk. A common method of preparing cow's milk so as to make it suitable for infant feeding, is to dilute it with pure water, using at first only one third or one fourth milk, the proportion of milk being gradually increased as the child's stomach becomes accustomed to the food and able to bear it, until at the age of four months the child should be taking equal parts of milk and water. When sterilized milk is to be thus diluted, the water should be first boiled or added before sterilizing. A small amount of fine white sugar, or what is better, milk sugar, should be added to the diluted milk. Barley water, and thin, well-boiled, and carefully strained oatmeal gruel thoroughly blended with the milk are also used for this purpose. A food which approximates more nearly the constituents of mother's milk may be prepared as follows:—

Artificial Human Milk No. 1.—Blend one fourth pint of fresh, sweet cream and three fourths of a pint of warm water. Add one half ounce of milk sugar and from two to ten ounces of milk, according to the age of the infant and its digestive capacity.

Artificial Human Milk No. 2.—Meigs's formula: Take two tablespoonfuls of cream of medium quality, one tablespoonful of milk, two of lime water, and three of water to which sugar of milk has been added in the proportion of seventeen and three fourths drams to the pint. This saccharine solution must be prepared fresh every day or two and kept in a cool place. A child may be allowed from half a pint to three pints of this mixture, according to age.

Artificial Human Milk No. 3.—Prepare a barley water by adding one pint boiling water to a pint of best pearl barley. Allow it to cool, and strain. Mix together one third of a pint of this barley water, two thirds of a pint of fresh, pure milk, and a teaspoonful of milk sugar.—Medical News.

Peptonized milk, a formula for the preparation of which may be found onpage 426, is also valuable as food for infants, especially for those of weak digestion.

Mucilaginous Food Excellent in Gastro-enteritis.—Wheat, one tablespoonful; oatmeal, one half tablespoonful; barley, one half tablespoonful; water, one quart. Boil to one pint, strain, and sweeten.—Dietetic Gazette.

Prepared Foods for Infants.—Of prepared infant foods we can recommend that manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek, Mich., as thoroughly reliable. There are hundreds of prepared infant foods in the market, but most of them are practically worthless in point of food value, being often largely composed of starch, a substance which the immature digestive organs of a young child are incapable of digesting. Hundreds of infants are yearly starved to death upon such foods.

All artificial foods require longer time for digestion than the food supplied by nature; and when making use of such, great care should be taken to avoid too frequent feeding. It is absolutely essential for the perfect health of an infant as well as of grown people, that the digestive organs shall enjoy a due interval of rest between the digestion of one meal and the taking of another. As a rule, a new-born infant may be safely fed, when using human milk, not oftener than once in every three or four hours. When fed upon artificial food, once in five or six hours is often enough for feeding. The intervals between meals in either case should be gradually prolonged as the child grows older.

Quantity of Food for Infants.—Dr. J.H. Kellogg gives the following rules and suggestions for the feeding of infants:—

"During the first week of a child's life, the weight of the food given should be 1/100 of the weight of the infant at birth. The daily additional amount of food required for a child amounts to about one fourth of a dram, or about one ounce at the end of each month. A child gains in weight from two thirds of an ounce to one ounce per day during the first five months of its life, and an average of one half as much daily during the balance of the first year.

"From a series of tables which have been prepared, as the result of experiments carefully conducted in large lying-in establishments, we have devised this rule:—

"To find the amount of food required by a child at each feeding during the first year of life, divide the weight of the child at birth by 100 and add to this amount 3/100 of the gain which the child has made since birth. Take, for example, a child which weighs 7-1/2 lbs—at birth, or 120 ounces. Dividing by 100 we have 1.2 oz. Estimating the weight according to the rule above given, the child at the end of nine months will have gained 210 oz. Dividing this by 100 and multiplying by 3, we have 6.3 oz. Adding to this our previous result, 1.3, we have 7.5 oz, as the amount of food required at each feeding at the end of nine months by a child which weighed 7-1/2 lbs. at birth. To save mothers the trouble of making these calculations, wehave prepared the following table, which will be found to hold good for the average child weighing 7-1/2 lbs. at birth. This is rather more than the ordinary child weighs, but we have purposely chosen a large child for illustration, as it is better that the child should have a slight excess of food than too little.

"In the above table the first column represents quantities for the first week, the second for the end of the second month, the third for the end of the third month, etc. It need not be mentioned that the change in quantity should be even more gradual than represented in the table.

"Attention should also be called to the fact that the time mentioned as the interval for feeding at different ages, does not apply to the whole twenty-four hours. Even during the first week, the child is expected to skip two feedings during the night, making the interval four hours instead of two. By the end of the second month, the interval between the feedings at night becomes six hours, and at the end of the ninth month, six and one half hours.

"From personal observation we judge that in many cases children will do equally well if allowed a longer interval between feedings at night. The plan of feeding five times daily instead of six, may be begun at as early an age as six months in many instances."

Manner of Feeding Artificial Foods.—All artificial foods are best fed with a teaspoon, as by this method liability to over-feeding and danger from unclean utensils are likely to beavoided. If a nursing-bottle is used, it should be of clear flint glass so that the slightest foulness may be easily detected, and one simple in construction, which can be completely taken apart for cleaning. Those furnished with conical black rubber caps are the best. Each time after using, such a bottle should have the cap removed, and both bottle and cap should be thoroughly cleansed, first with cold water, and then with warm water in which soda has been dissolved in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a pint of water. They should then be kept immersed in weak soda solution until again needed, when both bottle and cap should be thoroughly rinsed in clean boiled water before they are used. Neglect to observe these precautions is one of the frequent causes of stomach disturbances in young children. It is well to keep two bottles for feeding, using them alternately.

Diet for Older Children.—No solid food or table-feeding of any kind should be given to a child until it has the larger share of its first, or milk teeth. Even then it must not be supposed that because a child has acquired its teeth, it may partake of all kinds of food with impunity. It is quite customary for mothers to permit their little ones to sit at the family table and be treated to bits of everything upon the bill of fare, apparently looking upon them as miniature grown people, with digestive ability equal to persons of mature growth, but simply lacking in, stomach capacity to dispose of as much as older members of the family. The digestive apparatus of a child differs so greatly from that of an adult in its anatomical structure and in the character and amount of the digestive fluids, that it is by no means proper to allow a child to eat all kinds of wholesome foods which a healthy adult stomach can consume with impunity, to say nothing of the rich, highly seasoned viands, sweetmeats, and epicurean dishes which seldom fail to form some part of the bill of fare. It is true that many children are endowed with so much constitutional vigor that they do live and seemingly thrive, notwithstanding dietetic errors; but the integrity of the digestive organs is liable to be so greatly impaired by continued ill-treatment thatsooner or later in life disease results. Till the age of three years, sterilized milk, whole-wheat bread in its various forms, such of the grains as contain a large share of gluten, prepared in a variety of palatable ways, milk and fruit toasts, and the easily digested fruits, both raw and cooked, form the best dietary. Strained vegetable soups may be occasionally added for variety. For from three to six years the same simple regimen, with easily digested and simply prepared vegetables, macaroni, and legumes prepared without skins, will be all-sufficient. If desserts are desirable, let them be simple in character and easily digestible. Tea, coffee, hot bread and biscuit, fried foods of all kinds, salted meats, preserves, rich puddings, cake, and pastries should be wholly discarded from the children's bill of fare.

It is especially important that a dietary for children should contain an abundance of nitrogenous material. It is needed not only for repairs, but must be on deposit for the purpose of food. Milk, whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, barley, and preparations of wheat, contain this element in abundance, and should for this reason be given great prominence in the children's dietary.

Flesh foods are in no way necessary for children, since the food elements of which they are composed can be supplied from other and better sources, and many prominent medical authorities unite in the opinion that such foods are decidedly deleterious, and should not be used at all by children under eight or ten years of age. Experiments made by Dr. Camman, of New York, upon the dietary of nearly two hundred young children in an orphan's home, offer conclusive evidence that the death rate among children from gastro-intestinal troubles is greatly lessened by the exclusion of meat from their dietary. Dr. Clouston, of Edinburgh, an eminent medical authority, states that in his experience, those children who show the greatest tendencies to instability of the brain, insanity, and immoral habits are, as a rule, those who use animal food in excess; and that he has seen a change of diet to milk andfarinaceous food produce a marked change in their nervous irritability.

Scores of other authorities corroborate. Dr. Clouston's observation, and assert that children fed largely on flesh foods have capricious appetites, suffer more commonly from indigestion in its various forms, possess an unstable nervous system, and have less resisting power in general.

Candy and similar sweets generally given to children as a matter of course, may be excluded from their dietary with positive benefit in every way. It is true, as is often stated in favor of the use of these articles, that sugar is a food element needed by children; but the amount required for the purpose of growth and repair is comparatively small, and is supplied in great abundance in bread, grains, fruits, and other common articles of food. If an additional quantity is taken, it is not utilized by the system, and serves only to derange digestion, impair appetite, and indirectly undermine the health.

Children are not likely to crave candy and other sweets unless a taste for such articles has been developed by indulgence in them; and their use, since they are seldom taken at mealtime, helps greatly to foster that most pernicious habit of childhood—eating between meals. No food, except at their regular mealtimes, should be the universal rule for children from babyhood up; and although during their earliest years they require food at somewhat shorter intervals than adults, their meal hours should be arranged for the same time each day, and no piecing permitted. Parents who follow the too common practice of giving their little ones a cracker or fruit between meals are simply placing them under training for dyspepsia, sooner or later. Uninterrupted digestion proceeds smoothly and harmoniously in a healthy stomach; but interruptions in the shape of food sent down at all times and when the stomach is already at work, are justly resented, and such disturbances, if long continued, are punished by suffering.

The appetite of a child is quite as susceptible of education, in both a right and wrong direction, as are its mental or moral faculties; and parents in whose hands this education mainlyrests should give the subject careful consideration, since upon it the future health and usefulness of their children not a little devolve. We should all be rulers of our appetites instead of subject to them; but whether this be so or not, depends greatly upon early dietetic training. Many a loving mother, by thoughtless indulgence of her child, in season and out of season, in dainties and tidbits that simply serve to gratify the palate, is fostering a "love of appetite" which may ruin her child in years to come. There are inherited appetites and tendencies, it is true; but even these may be largely overcome by careful early training in right ways of eating and drinking. It is possible to teach very young children to use such food as is best for them, and to refrain from the eating of things harmful; and it should be one of the first concerns of every mother to start her children on the road to manhood and womanhood, well trained in correct dietetic habits.

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