In acute and chronic affections of the digestive organs, especially the latter, the skim-milk treatment, already described, possesses the highest value. When the trouble is localized to the stomach and is of an acute character, only the most easily-digested aliments are borne, as, for example, milk and lime-water, barley-water, tamarind-whey, carbonic acid water, effervescent lemonade, etc. The following formulae are useful :

            " To a tablespoonful of pearl-barley, washed in cold water, add two or three lumps of sugar, the rind of one lemon, and the juice of half a lemon. On these pour a quart of boiling water and let it stand for seven or eight hours. Strain it."

"Boil an ounce of tamarind-pulp with a pint of milk, and strain." "Squeeze two large lemons, and add a pint of spring or cistern water to the juice and three or four lumps of white sugar. When required for use, pour half of it into a tumbler, and add half a small teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda; stir and drink while effervescing."

In the chronic affections of the stomach, when digestion is feeble, especially of the nitrogenous elements (deficiency of gastric juice),

such aliments as boiled rice, tapioca, arrow-root, unfermented bread (aerated bread), and the farinaceous vegetables, are indicated, for these foods are digested chiefly in the small intestine. Cases of acidity and heart-burn, dependent on the fermentation of the starchy and fatty elements of the food, require abstinence from the articles containing them. The acid fruits and vegetables (apples, peaches, tomatoes, etc.) are to be preferred under such circumstances to the farinaceous foods. An acid wine (Rhenish or Catawba), taken at the principal meal, will often correct the acidity derived from the fermentation of starch and fat.

In intestinal indigestion, summer diarrhoea, and cholera infantum, it is necessary to supply those foods which undergo solution in the stomach, in compliance with the fundamental therapeutical principle of giving a suffering organ (the intestine) rest. Starches and fats should therefore be withheld. Bread, arrow-root, potato, beans, peas, butter, and other fats, increase the disease, because on reaching the affected organ they are not finally digested, but act as irritants. This result is well seen in the summer diarrhoea of infants. Milk, eggs, animal broths, broiled or raw beefsteak, oysters, white-fish, are suitable aliments under these circumstances. Similar rules obtain in the treatment of jaundice from catarrh of the gall-ducts and of biliary concretions. The starches and fats are especially active in setting up those local disturbances which result in the production of jaundice by extension of the catarrhal process from the duodenum along the hepatic duct. The use of fat and oil has an immediate result in favoring the crystallization of the cholesterin, or in causing inspissation*' of the bile.

Cases of chronic diarrhoea are sometimes remarkably benefited by a diet of grape-juice, peaches, and such succulent vegetables as tomato, celery, and raw cabbage. It is probable that the cases so benefited are really scorbutic in character. The author has known many obstinate cases of summer diarrhoea of infants to be improved by the addition of ripe peaches to the milk-diet.

A proper regulation of the diet is of great importance in the treatment of habitual constipation. This usually depends on deficient secretion, or torpor (a paretic state) of the muscular layer of the intestines. Corn-bread, cracked wheat, oatmeal, bread of unbolted flour, fruits, and such vegetables as green corn, tomatoes, and celery, are indicated. Those troubled with habitual constipation, to a moderate extent, may overcome it by the daily use at dessert of a few almonds and raisins, about six of each. Haemorrhoids due to congestion of the portal vein, or to constipation, are much benefited by the grape-cure, or a diet of fruits and succulent vegetables.