In this disease the stomach must be kept in the best possible condition. The food must be just enough, and not one ounce too much. Flatulency must be avoided. Like many other troubles of the circulatory system, the distention of the stomach presses against the diaphragm, and in turn against the heart. The heavy meal should be taken at noon. Breakfast should be light and composed largely of well-cooked cereals and cream, or poached or soft-boiled eggs and toast.

Do not give liquids with meals. If the patient has been accustomed to coffee, give a cup of coffee an hour before the regular breakfast. Tender boiled, broiled or baked meats may be given in moderation. Pork, veal, and such dense meats as rabbit, or fatty meats as duck, goose and turkey, must be avoided. Fresh fruits and fruit juices are to be recommended. Such green vegetables as spinach, well cooked, lettuce, or cooked cress and asparagus tips, do not, as a rule, cause flatulency. Hot water may be taken a half hour before each meal, in the place of soup. The patient must avoid all highly-seasoned foods, rich sauces, sea foods with the exception of oysters and white-fleshed fish, rich desserts, sweets and salads. Unleavened bread, or any hard bread that requires mastication, is best.

If flatulency occurs in the early morning, give the patient two tablespoonfuls of clam broth, or two table-spoonfuls of moderately strong coffee mixed with four tablespoonfuls of milk; this must be sipped slowly. Sometimes a cup of hot water will have the desired effect. If flatulency is persistent in the mornings, give a cup of hot water, and follow with two tablespoonfuls of strained lemon juice. Continue this, and the flatulency will usually be entirely corrected.

The patient should never try the second time a food that has not agreed at first.

If constipation occurs, give a scraped apple, or Roman meal mush, or four ground almonds.

A good motto is "Eat less than you-want."

May Eat

Eggs

Milk and milk foods Leban Koumys Buttermilk

Well-cooked cereals, with cream White bread, stale or dry-Fresh fruits, and fruit juices alone Cream soups Predigested milk and oysters, if necessary

Tender green vegetables, as spinach, cooked cress, asparagus tips, tender cauliflower, summer squash

Oysters lightly cooked, either soups, stewed or broiled

A little white-fleshed fish, broiled

Stewed prunes

Baked apples

Scraped mutton cake, broiled

A little broiled young chicken

Rice

An occasional baked potato

Avoid

Hot breads

Fresh breads

Cakes

Buns

Pies

Sweets of all kinds

Pickles

Meat salads

Pork

Veal

All fried foods

All sea foods except oysters and white-fleshed fish

Rabbit

Rare steak

Rare roasted beef

Turkey

Duck

Goose

All coarse vegetables

Cereals with sugar

Starchy vegetables with the exception of rice