After lunch the patient repairs to his couch again and rests quietly, dozing, if possible. He may combine this rest, as he did the morning rest, with a sun bath. After his rest, if the weather is not inclement, he may take a little walk around the block and read an hour or so. If the period between lunch and dinner is more than five hours, the patient may feel, late in the afternoon, a craving for some nutriment. If so, something like an egg lemonade should be served. The egg in this drink is already half digested, and will be readily peptonized in the stomach and the food wholly absorbed or passed out of the intestine before the next meal. Many variations of the egg lemonade have been devised and may be substituted for it by way of variety. The introduction, however, into this afternoon refreshment of food that requires one or two hours' work on the part of the stomach in order properly to digest it, should be strongly discouraged. It overtaxes the stomach, and, in the long run, the patient will not assimilate as large an amount of food as he would if confined to three square meals a day. At 6 or 6:30 o 'clock dinner may be served. This is the most elaborate meal of the day. While the breakfast and lunch were served individually in the patient's sun parlor or inclosed veranda, the dinner should, if possible, be taken with the family. Of course it goes without saying that the strictest sanitary precautions must be observed as to the use of dishes, napkins, etc. However, this can easily be arranged in any family where there is intelligent cooperation. The family may have a sirloin steak for dinner. There is no reason why the patient should not have his portion of meat from this general steak; or mutton chops, or roast leg of lamb, or roast chicken, baked fish, or roast turkey. If, however, the family menu provides pork and beans, or roast pork, or breast of veal with dressing, the patient should have a special provision of meat, such as a mutton chop or a bit of tenderloin steak. The meat having been provided, the patient may partake of the general family menu of boiled or baked potato, a side dish of spinach with egg garniture and mayonnaise dressing, whole wheat bread, butter, stewed prunes, or other stewed or canned fruit. When the family has its coffee the patient may have a cup of hot milk flavored with coffee. For dessert, a cup custard or a cup of junket, or gelatin pudding with whipped cream, may be served to the family as dessert, in which case the patient may partake of the general menu. If, however, the family indulges in mince pie or other rich pastries and puddings, the patient must abstain from these and be satisfied with a simple light dessert; perhaps a bunch of grapes will suffice.

Forced feeding is sometimes advisable in the case of pulmonary tuberculosis, when there is loss of appetite with tendency to nausea when food is swallowed under protest. A study of these cases has shown that the difficulty is in the nervous system rather than any inability on the part of the digestive system to digest the food.

Food once in the stomach will be digested if it does not cause nausea and vomiting. If it can be introduced into the stomach without the necessity of chewing and swallowing it, no nausea will occur, and the food will be digested, absorbed, and assimilated. The usual method is to introduce liquid foods through the stomach-tube. This permits a much larger ingestion of food than could be accomplished by rectal feeding.