In those cases of simple acute bronchitis that are accompanied by fever, diet must be the same as for mild infectious diseases. Liquid food for the most part, or soft foods if relished, such as custards, milk-toast, cereals, blanc mange, and corn-starch, are the best. When there is no fever, it is sufficient to restrict the patient to small portions of simply prepared foods. In this, as in so many other acute inflammations, a feeling of well-being is much enhanced by prompt, free purgation.

In the early stage of acute colds, when coughing is severe and unsatisfactory because the secretions are too tenacious to be dislodged from the bronchial tubes, they can be made thinner and their expulsion easier by drinking freely of fluids. Hot fluids especially are soothing and lessen the frequency of the coughing. A hot lemonade, weak tea, hot milk, a punch, and hot bouillon are serviceable under these circumstances. In simple bronchitis, when only the large bronchial tubes are affected, this dry stage is of short duration. As soon as the cough becomes loose, fever, if present, disappears, and with it most of the discomfort of the cold. Then a normal diet may quickly be resumed.

Capillary bronchitis and catarrhal pneumonia must be considered as they occur in three groups of patients - infants, the aged, and the middle-aged. They are least severe in the last. In the earliest and lastest years of life the necessity of sustaining strength is especially great. The constant labor of breathing and the frequent wearying attacks of coughing tend to exhaust those who have not much vitality. Fever is also commonly present, and ranges high when pneumonia complicates the bronchitis. This is an additional factor tending to bring on exhaustion. Appetite is wanting. Eating makes breathing more difficult and often provokes coughing; therefore food is frequently spurned. Under these circumstances it becomes a problem to maintain strength. Milk must constitute the chief, if not the only, food for small children during the first few days of the illness. It should be given in small amounts and often. If it is not relished, it should be given in spoonful doses every half-hour or hour. Older children may be given broths and gruels alternately with milk. Hot drinks are most grateful to them and least likely to provoke coughing. In extreme cases it may be necessary to resort to nutritive enemata to help maintain strength.

The patients should be kept in rooms in which the temperature is uniform and about 750 F. It is often beneficial to keep the air of the sick-room moist, as the secretions are made thinner thereby and consequently are more easily dislodged. Hot baths and hot poultices give great relief to infants and little children. For the aged, light poultices are comfortable, provided they are well made and kept hot.

As soon as convalescence is established, patients may be fed more generously. The transition from a liquid diet to a normal one should be made somewhat gradually, just as in measles or other acute febrile disease.

Capillary bronchitis in middle life is especially likely to occur in obese individuals and in those who have lithemic tendencies. For the former, a reduction of flesh is an important prophylactic measure, while the promotion of free elimination by the kidneys, skin, and lungs, together with a diet that will prevent excessive nitrogenous waste, and exercise that will promote vigorous normal tissue changes, are equally valuable for the latter. Antirheumatic treatment is often of the greatest use because it relieves attacks when they occur. Water and milk should be taken freely; solid foods, sparingly. For the time being, red meats should be forbidden. Even eggs, fish, and breast of fowl should not be eaten generously. The liquid diet will both promote elimination and make the secretions in the bronchial tubes more fluid and easier to dislodge.

The bowel should be emptied thoroughly each day. If, as is often the case, chronic indigestion exists, it should be palliated or relieved. Flatulence and gastric or intestinal distention cause respiratory oppression that greatly increases the patient's discomfort. They also increase arterial blood pressure and give more work to a heart often sorely taxed already by bronchial congestion. The danger of cardiac exhaustion and edema of the lungs, complications that are imminent in those who are weak, is thus increased.

In chronic bronchitis, when an acute exacerbation occurs, the dietetic and hygienic treatment is the same as in acute bronchitis. In mild cases of chronic winter cough a normal regimen should be followed. When, in individual cases, the bronchial secretions are tenacious and thick, an abundance of fluid should be taken. Hot drinks are especially good. Many patients think that lemon-juice added to their beverages 'cuts the phlegm,' and are both pleased and comforted by it.

In other groups of cases the secretions are excessive. A dry diet is then of equal value. It is especially indicated in bron-chorrhea. But a residence in a dry air is of greater value than a dry diet. Although the quantity of secretions from inflamed mucous membranes may be modified greatly by partaking freely of fluids or abstaining from them, the character of the secretion cannot be changed. A mucous, mucopurulent, or purulent exudate will remain unchanged in character by diet. The constant inhalation of clean air will, however, often modify its character. Nothing contributes more to aggravate chronic bronchitis than breathing air made impure by being repeatedly breathed, which is the case in badly ventilated rooms or by breathing dust-laden air. Natural atmospheric changes are a provoking cause of acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis less frequently than violent changes of temperature and moisture produced artifically by overheating rooms and by baking the air in them. The change necessarily felt in going from such rooms to a cold, damp air out-of-doors is much greater than that which nature produces. Climatic prescriptions are, therefore, of much greater value in most cases of chronic bronchitis than are dietetic ones.