Nut or cod-liver oil may be emulsified as follows: Pour the oil in a cup and add about half as much water. Take revolving egg beater, put blades in the oil and water, and then operate as rapidly as possible until the water finely divides the oil, and then add beaten egg without stopping the beating until the mixture is complete.

Starches may be partly predigested by heat (long cooking at high temperature), by pancreatic preparations of commerce, and by malt extracts. (See diseases of stomach.) These methods may be used with great benefit in tuberculosis, anemia, and other diseases, and should be tried whenever there is a suspicion of pancreatic insufficiency. Milk, wheat gluten, powdered meat, eggs and fish should form a large part of the diet.

The liver is the largest organ of the body, and probably performs the greatest number of different functions. It is situated on the right side and extends below the lower ribs, overlapping the pyloric end of the stomach. During the past few years hundreds of experiments have been made to determine its various functions, and from these experiments we learn that the liver secretes from fifteen to twenty-one ounces of bile in twenty-four hours; that bile is composed of mucus, taurocholic and glycocholic acids, bilirubin, biliverdin, cholesterin and the salts of potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron; that bile emulsifies fats and increases the absorptive power of intestinal membranes; that it is laxative and to a limited extent acts as an intestinal antiseptic. The liver changes starch and fat into glycogen, sometimes called animal starch. It also changes albumen into serum-albumen. These are the: final changes food receives before being converted into heat and tissue. It is supposed that the liver acts as a sort of reservoir for nutriment, and that it gives out glycogen as the system needs it. Another function of the liver, probably equally important, is that of arresting poisons.

When poisons were injected into the veins leading directly to the liver they produced but little or no effect; but when injected in blood vessels leading from the liver, death quickly resulted. The liver arrests poisonous substances generated in the system, destroys the dead tissue of the body, and might aptly be called the supply, and the discharge-center of the blood.

An Organ With So Many Functions, Must Almost Necessarily Be Subject To A Great Many Disorders, So That The Common Question, "How Is Your Liver?" May Be Considered Almost Equivalent To "How Is Your Health?

Causes of Diseases of the Liver. The causes are very numerous; but for our purpose, four classifications will be sufficient:

1. Engorgement from excess of rich food and irritating condiments.

2. Poisons introduced into the body.

3. Contagious and infectious diseases.

4. Poisons generated within the system.

The French are very fond of fat goose livers, from which they make a dish called "pate de foies gras." To obtain the livers they confine the geese separately in small coops and feed them all the fattening foods they can be made to swallow. In a short time the livers of the fowls become three or four times the natural size, and then the goose is killed. A good many people treat themselves as the French do the geese to make fat livers, only they do not kill themselves quite so suddenly as the hatchet does the goose. An excess of fat, such as butter, gravy, fat meats, shortening, with great quantities of other foods, produce great engorgement of the portal circulation, and ultimately partial or total disability of the liver. Man is supposed to be a creature of reason, yet it is difficult to understand why so many poison themselves. It can only be accounted for on the theory mentioned in the beginning of the book, that the animal nature is stronger than the intellectual. The most common illustration of this is found in alcoholic poisoning. The human system can only burn up a small quantity of alcohol, and when a considerable amount is ingested, most of it must be excreted.

Just what function the liver performs in this work has not been satisfactorily determined, but when alcohol can be found nowhere else in the system after its ingestion, it may be found in abundance in the liver. It is probable that the liver holds a large amount of alcohol until it can be gradually excreted, and because of this function of the liver it is usually the most injured of any organ in the body when alcohol is used in excess. It is well known that large users of alcoholic liquors quickly succumb to acute infectious diseases, or at least are much more seriously affected by them. This may, in part, be due to congestion of the mucous membranes which alcohol causes, but it is probable that the liver of alcoholics loses its poison-destroying power, and because of this the systems of such persons become infected, and the natural power of resistance greatly lessened. Workers in lead and copper smelters are also much subject to liver diseases. Most of the minerals are slowly excreted, and when taken into the system, either by the mouth or absorbed from handling, there is a gradual accumulation, until the liver becomes almost wholly clogged, which results in disease. We must not overlook the most universal of all poisons - tobacco.

Every tobacco user is dependent on the fidelity of his liver to save him from tobacco poisoning, and the injury will be in proportion to its capacity to protect the system. In the treatment of contagious and infectious diseases, the use of tobacco will likely delay recovery. This is also true of diseases of nutrition. The specific infectious and contagious diseases seriously complicate the liver, probably because of the increased destruction of tissue in the body, and the poisonous bacteria and other organisms. The most common diseases of this character are malaria, typhoid fever, scarlatina, diphtheria and syphilis. The fourth cause of liver diseases is the source of most of its ailments, because the changes the food must undergo for the production of heat and the repair of tissue, make possible the constant production of poisonous compounds. The products of every form of indigestion, as well as the non-elimination of effete tissue, are in some degree poisonous. If the liver and other organs be sufficiently capable, the body will be protected from ill effects; otherwise, there is auto-intoxication - self-poisoning.

These are named according to the structural changes the liver undergoes, the most common of which is jaundice. This is a stoppage in the natural flow of bile and its absorption into the system, causing a yellowish tint of the skin. Hyperaemia is congestion of the portal circulation - a blood engorgement. Suppurative hepatitis, is abcess of the liver, and cirrhosis is a chronic inflammatory liver disease, characterized by a nodular roughness of the surface.

Symptoms

Enlargement and feeling of fulness in the right side. An unusual fullness of abdominal veins, an irregular and intermittent pulse, digestive disturbance, loss of appetite, and especially loathing of fatty foods. Dropsy, jaundice, difficult breathing, tension in the region of the stomach and liver, slight chills, sharp pain in the right side, radiating to right shoulder and a great increase or decrease in amount of urea.

Diet

We have seen persons quickly recover from jaundice by eating large quantities of fresh peaches, after medical treatment had failed to give relief. There is probably no disease where the large use of laxative fruits, such as apples, peaches, strawberries and oranges have such beneficial effects. The fruit should be fresh and used without sugar. Sour fruits are never indicated in acute inflammatory condition of intestines, and if complicated with diseases of the liver, fruits must be kept out of the diet until acute symptoms subside. A free use of fruits is recommended by some in alcoholism, and it is claimed, with some reason, that when fruits are plentiful and cheap, the general use of alcoholic liquors greatly decreases. It is to be hoped that further observation and experience will prove this claim and give reliable facts that will be of great value.

In diseases of the liver, as in other diseases, it should be kept in mind that rest for the diseased organ, nourishment and freedom from irritation, are most essential. No food so nearly meets these requirements as milk. Where the liver is enlarged from the excess of rich food, it would seem rational to conclude that a light diet, mostly liquid, should be prescribed; and it is probable that the "fruit cure" for rheumatism and other diseases, rests on this theory. When the liver is affected from such diseases as typhoid or malaria, it is necessary to furnish all the nourishing food that can be digested and assimilated, such as meat juice, eggs, gelatine, gluten and bread. When there is no intestinal inflammation, fine wheat bran that has been roasted and re-ground, will help keep the intestines active.