affords a quick supply to the system, while it does not excite that degree of vascular action which is produced by other animal matters. Its nutritive powers may be increased by various additions, which have also, on some occasions, the effect of naturally correcting its tendency to acidity, and on others that of obviating the costiveness which it is liable to occasion: such objects are sometimes fulfilled by adding oatmeal gruel to it. In certain states of organic disease I have found that milk impregnated with the fatty matter of mutton suet is a valuable article of diet: such a repast is best prepared by inserting the suet in a muslin bag, and then simmering it with the milk. In common cases of dyspepsia it would prove injurious; but where it is an object to introduce much nutritive matter in a small space there is not a better form of aliment. With some practitioners it is a custom to recommend an admixture of limewater with milk, to prevent the acidity which it is apt to create in feeble stomachs."

The sooner milk is taken after being drawn, if to be used in a raw state, the better. There is reason to believe that one of the principal advantages of sucking arises from the circumstance of the milk being swallowed unaltered by the air, as the atmosphere speedily makes a great change upon this delicate fluid. When infants, therefore, are nursed on cow or other milk it is of the greatest importance to give it directly from the animal. If this is not possible it ought to be carefully covered, and kept warm by placing the vessel containing it over boiling water.

Toast and Water will frequently agree with those stomachs which rebel against the use of the pure fluid. It is thus rendered slightly nutritive, holding a certain portion of gum and starch in solution. Sir Anthony Carlisle recommends that it should be prepared with hard biscuit reduced by fire to a coffee colour. "This drink," he says, “being free from yeast, is a most agreeable beverage. Much depends upon the water being at a boiling temperature, and it ought to be drunk as soon

CHOCOLATE, COCOA, AND BARLEY WATER.

69

as it has cooled sufficiently, for by keeping it acquires an unpleasant flavour.

Chocolate is nourishing, especially when boiled with eggs and milk. It is frequently recommended as a restorative in cases of emaciation and consumption. It is more nourishing and less heating than coffee. Chocolate, however, on account of its oily quality, is often oppressive to some stomachs. To the corpulent and weak the use of it is improper, and if they be immoderate eaters it induces inflammatory diseases and apoplexy. It also disagrees with persons much employed in mental pursuits.

Cocoa is usually considered a substitute for chocolate. As it contains less nutritive matter it is not so objectionable; and, as the oily matter exists only in small quantities, it is less likely to disagree with the stomach.

Barley Water is an extremely useful drink, and will be found to agree with most persons. It may be made more palatable by the addition of lemon-juice, cream of tartar, wine, raisins, milk, &c., as circumstances may admit.

This is the ptisan of Hippocrates, preferred by him to every other aliment in acute diseases.

The following is a good receipt for making this wholesome beverage :

Take two ounces of pearl barley, and four pints and a half of water. First wash away with cold water any foreign matter adhering to the barley; then, having poured upon it half a pint of the water, boil for a few minutes. Having thrown away this water pour the rest, first made hot, upon the barley; then boil down to two pints, and strain. For the compound decoction, take of the decoction of barley two pints; figs sliced, two ounces; liquorice-root sliced and bruised, one ounce; raisins stoned, two ounces; water, one pint. Boil down to two pints, and strain. Taken freely for common drink it is a useful diluent in many disorders. Its utility may be further promoted by the addition of gum arabic and cream of tartar, a drachm of

each to a pint of the decoction, sweetened with manna or sugar, as the state of the patient's bowels may require it proves nutritive and aperient. This drink is also greatly improved by the addition of lemon-juice and sugar candy.

Gruel is excellent and wholesome. Dr. Franklin was accustomed to take a large basin of warm gruel every morning, to which he added a small slice of butter, a piece of toasted bread, and some nutmeg. The expense of this mess, which was his favourite breakfast, was only three halfpence. He mentions an old Roman Catholic lady, who, having disposed of all her property for charitable uses, reserved only £12 a year to herself (and even of this small pittance she gave a part to the poor), and lived entirely on water gruel. On this diet she never suffered sickness.

"Appearances to save, his only care,

SHAKSPEARE.

So things seem right, no matter what they are."

CHURCHILL.

NOTHING Contributes more essentially to health and comfort than a well-directed attention to our clothing. The general properties of a good, commodious, and comfortable dress may be comprised as follows, viz., that it be soft and pliable, so as not to obstruct the free and easy motions of the joints, nor in other respects to incommode either by its weight or tightness; that it be adequate to protect the body from the external influence of the atmosphere, and preserve the body in that degree of temperature which is most agreeable, as well as best adapted to the exercise of the different functions and motions compatible with a state of health; that it do not produce any detrimental effects, so as to increase an unnecessary degree of perspiration, nor absorb the vapours of the atmosphere.

Dress unduly regulated is not only a restraint upon the body, but has an important influence on the mind. Thus Horace, with that correct observation of human nature by which he was so eminently distinguished, quotes an instance of a person who, when he maliciously intended to injure another, gave him a present of costly clothing. This brought about a total alteration in his

hopes and plans, made him indolent and luxurious, and a spendthrift, so that he was at last reduced to the necessity of betaking himself to the trade of a gladiator, or becoming the driver of a green-grocer's hack. It is obvious that there is no greater imprudence than yielding implicitly to fashion; the dress should always feel easy, and be adapted to the season. By throwing off thick clothing too soon in spring, and putting it on too late in autumn, we run the risk of having fevers in summer and colds in winter. Leave off winter clothes late in the spring; put them on early in the autumn. Delicate and dyspeptic persons are often distressed by changing their dress, which should be as uniform as possible in thickness, quality, and form, especially flannel, or, indeed, whatever is worn next to the skin. The change of a thick waistcoat for a thin one, or of a long one for a shorter one, not putting on winter garments soon enough, or leaving them off too soon, will often excite a violent disorder in the lungs, bowels, &c. Persons engaged in sedentary employments must be almost constantly under the influence of cold, unless the apartment in which they work is heated to a degree that subjects them, on leaving it, to all the dangers of a sudden transition, as it were, from summer to winter. The inactivity to which such persons are condemned, by weakening the body, renders it incapable of maintaining the degree of warmth necessary to comfort without additional clothing or fire. Under such circumstances a sufficient quantity of clothing of a proper quality, with the apartment moderately warmed and well ventilated, ought to be preferred for keeping up the requisite degree of warmth, to any means of heating the air of the room so much as to render any increase of clothing unnecessary. To heat the air of an apartment much above the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere we must shut out the external air; the air also becomes extremely rarefied and dry, which circumstances make it doubly dangerous to pass from it to the cold, raw, external air. But in leaving a moderately well-warmed