"Whate'er is best administer'd is best."

The preparation and cooking of food for invalids deserves far greater attention than is usually bestowed. Not only should the amount and quality vary according to the nature of the disease, but every little detail in its subsequent arrangement and serving is of vast importance to sick people, the aim in invalid meals comprising not only the due repair of wasted tissues, but the aesthetic value of appearances in the invalid's capricious eye.

Apart from the special diets appointed by medical men in such cases as diabetes, gout, corpulence, and similar diseases, an invalid approaching the convalescence stage from any other direction is usually permitted a fairly wide latitude in the question of food. But even then restrictions must always be complied with: First, the food should be of a really nourishing, or, at any rate, refreshing nature; and, second, it must be presented in easily digestible form.