The preparation of food for those who are seriously ill is a matter of vital importance, for the life of the patient often depends either on the maintenance of strength during the acute period of the disease or on the recovery of power during convalescence. In acute illness and in high fever the stomach is unable to digest solid food. It becomes, therefore, of great importance to administer food which is not only highly nutritious, but which contains the food principles necessary for the maintenance of strength and the repair of the tissues wasted in the fever process.

Patent Foods Often Of Little Value Though Of High Price

It is only of recent years, however, that the feeding of the patient has been based on scientific principles, and that doctors have turned their minds to such subjects as the correct making of beef-tea and gruel. Even now, unfortunately, the provision of food for the well-to-do is entrusted too much to the vendors of patented and secret preparations; and we are left in ignorance of the actual constitution of the foods for which we are paying a high price, in the hope that they contain the necessary elements. In this we may be, however, entirely deceived, and many of the patented beef-teas and meat-juices which are purchased at great cost, in the belief that they are "strengthening," contain only a trace of albumen. The expensive preparations of malt also advertised as "foods" cannot be properly included in this category.

Invalid Foods Can Be Well Prepared At Home

My object will be to show how the most nutritious invalid foods can be prepared at home, in the sick-room, and at the least cost. I have, when attending on the sick, been frequently struck by one of two things - either the immense cost at which the patient was being nourished on patent foods, or the small amount of nourishment which was extracted by means of ignorant methods from good materials. If the nature of the food principles necessary for the maintenance of the body be remembered, and also the broad facts of digestion, beef-tea, jellies, etc., would be made with much more intelligence, and the invalid would be better fed. Having, in the previous chapters of this book, given some account of food values and of the processes of digestion, I will proceed to describe how the invalid may be intelligently fed, without resorting to costly patented foods of unknown composition, and I will give recipes which may be safely followed.