Playfair's Diet

Playfair's diet for neurasthenia is a good example of a milk diet, soon combined with other foods, as follows:

First Day

Twenty-two ounces of milk in divided doses.

Second Day

Fifty ounces of milk in divided doses.

Third Day

Fifty ounces of milk in divided doses. Massage, half an hour.

Fourth Day

Fifty ounces of milk in divided doses; egg, bread and butter; dialysed iron, forty minims in two doses. Massage, one hour and a half.

Sixth Day

Fifty ounces of milk in divided doses; mutton chop. Massage, one hour and fifty minutes.

Eighth Day

Fifty ounces of milk in divided doses; mutton chop; porridge and a gill of cream; maltine, twice daily. Massage, three hours; electricity, half an hour; continued to end of treatment. The solid food is now gradually increased until such a diet is reached as the following for the:

Tenth Day

6 a. m., raw meat soup, ten ounces; 7 a. m., a cup of black coffee; 8 a. m., a plate of oatmeal porridge, a gill of cream, a boiled egg, three slices of bread and butter, and cocoa; 11 a.m., milk, ten ounces; 2 p. m., rump steak, one half pound of potatoes, cauliflower, a savoury omelet, milk, ten ounces; 4 p. m., milk, ten ounces; three slices of bread and butter; 6 p.m., a cup of gravy soup; 8 p. m., a fried sole, roast mutton (three large slices), French beans, potatoes, stewed fruit, and cream; milk, ten ounces; 11 p. m., raw meat soup, ten ounces.

Fifteenth Day

Three full meals daily of fish, meat, vegetables, cream, and fruit; two quarts of milk and two glasses of Burgundy.

Twenty-Second Day

Amount of food lessened.

Leyden's Diet

Leyden's diet for neurasthenia is a modified form of milk treatment which gives excellent results in some cases:

At 7 a. m., half a litre of milk, slowly sipped in half an hour, a small cup of coffee with cream, eighty grammes (nearly three ounces) of cold meat, a mealy baked potato; 10 a. m., a litre of milk with three biscuits; 12 a. m., the same; 1 p. m., broth, two hundred grammes (about seven ounces) of fowl, puree of potatoes, green vegetables, one hundred and twenty grammes (nearly four ounces) of compote, and pastry; 3.30, 5.30, 8, and 9.30 p. m., half a litre of milk, making a daily consumption of three litres and a half of milk. In the after part of the day, two meals each of eighty grammes (three ounces) of roast meat with bread and three biscuits.