Essentials of diet, or, Hints on food, in health and disease / by the late E. Harris Ruddock.

  • Ruddock, E. H. (Edward Harris), 1822-1875.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essentials of diet, or, Hints on food, in health and disease / by the late E. Harris Ruddock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    154/290 (page 150)
    boiling and filtering. Heavy suppers are unsafe, for if a person is overtaken by the disease in the middle of the night with a full stomach, the case is generally a serious one. During Attack.—In every case of cholera, com- plete abstinence from even the very lightest kind of aliment should be inexorably enforced from the mo- ment that the nature of the disease is ascertained till convalescence has become decided ; in the observance of this rule consists the very essence of successful treatment. The plan of complete abstinence from food has not invariably been adopted by all ranks of the medical profession ; and this may account to some extent for the excessive mortality from cholera during some epidemics. Relapse, with alarming effects, has followed from the administration of a little beef-tea or brandy-and-water, or milk-and-water. When favour- able reaction has once fairly begun, brandy, beef-tea, or even chicken-broth, instead of stimulating the patient back to health, will only arrest reaction and send him back to death. It is egregious folly to attempt to force the exhausted alimentary organs to perform a pliysical impossibility, viz., prematurely to digest food. None is required, and stimulants are worse than useless. Ice may be given freely, to be dissolved in the mouth or swallowed ; iced water is also refreshing ; enemata of warm milk, often repeated, are beneficial. When the favourable symptoms are decided, farinaceous preparations may be given, but only in small quantities. In due time broths and a 6 i\ a. 1 k' ri k £; t; k % a? it