Kiilz's Inulin Biscuits

"Fifty grammes of inulin are to be put in a large porcelain basin, and while standing over a water bath to be rubbed up with thirty cubic centimetres of milk, and as much hot water as may be necessary; into a uniform dough, with which the yolks of four eggs and a little salt are to be mixed. To this the whites of four eggs are to be added, having first beaten them to a foam and carefully worked them in. The dough is finally to be baked in tin moulds, previously smeared with butter. The taste of the biscuits may be improved by the addition of vanilla or other spices" (Dietary of the Sick. Von Ziemssen's Handbook of General Therapeutics). These biscuits are not agreeable to the taste and patients soon tire of them.

(E) Soya Bread

A meal is made from the fruit of the Soya hispida, a bean which is grown in China and Japan and also raised in Austria. It is very rich in protein. It has a peculiar taste and holds a purgative oil.

The published percentage composition of the more important ingredients of soya bread is as follows:

Water...................................................45.000

Protein................................................... 20.168

Fats..................................................... 9.350

Starch and sugar.......................................... 2.794

Phosphoric acid........................................... 0.863

Soya bread is nutritious on account of the large percentage of fat which it contains, but according to an analysis made by an expert chemist it contains carbohydrates in considerable amount. This, in fact, is true of all the breads and biscuits made of substitutes for flour. Potatoes contain, bulk for bulk, a little more than one-third as much starch as wheaten bread, hence six ounces of baked potatoes may be substituted for two ounces of bread, if the patient prefers.

Substitutes For Sugar

Külz states that certain of the sugars and allied bodies may be used with the food without increasing the glycosuria, being very thoroughly consumed within the body. Such, for instance, are inu-lin, inosite, mannite, and levulose or sugar derived from fruits. A preparation of the latter is sold under the name of "diabetin." Another sugar substitute known as "crystalose " is much prescribed at Carlsbad.

Glycerin has also been used, but Senator and Frerichs are opposed to it. If given in quantity, such as one or two ounces a day, it occasions intestinal disorder, and may prove too laxative. It also causes a continuous sweet taste in the mouth.

Saccharin is employed with success to take the place of cane sugar for sweetening foods for diabetic patients. It may be used to sweeten coffee and other materials. It is a crystalline nitrogenous body derived from coal tar, which is sparingly soluble in cold water, more soluble in hot water, and very soluble in glycerin. It is about three hundred times as sweet as cane sugar, and when taken not to exceed four or five grains daily it is quite harmless. Eaten in large quantity it disorders digestion and causes gastric pain. A convenient formula is given by James Stewart for saccharin pastilles:

Saccharin................................................gr. xlv.

Sod. bicarb, sice.......................................... 3 ss.

Manniti................................................. 3 xijss.

M. Make 100 pastilles; one will sweeten a cup of tea or coffee.