Without entering into the causes or theories concerning appendicitis, it is frequently met with in persons who are troubled with habitual constipation, and persons who sit in unnatural positions, stooping over, as tailors, seamstresses, and bookkeepers.

The first important step toward recovery, is to correct the irregularities of the stomach and bowels.

Give up one meal a day, preferably breakfast. A walking patient, going every day to the office, may cut out the noonday meal, taking in its place a glass of buttermilk, matzoon or koumys.

Give plenty of pure cold water between meals and a cup of hot water before dinner.

If breakfasts are not eaten, give in its place a cup of cafe au lait without sugar, or the juice of two oranges, or a half glass of apple juice.

If breakfasts are eaten, the food must be light and easily digested: Cream of Wheat, farina, Wheatena, wheat-let, shredded wheat, toasted corn flakes, or strained oatmeal and cream, with hard bread or whole wheat bread or Roman bannocks well buttered, are quite enough.

Luncheons should be composed largely of cream soups or milk preparations. For dinners, give boiled mutton, beef, chicken or white-fleshed fish, a baked potato, or boiled rice, or carefully-cooked hominy, or plain macaroni, followed by a dainty salad of carefully-cooked string beans or cauliflower, or asparagus with French dressing.

Rub the plate in which you make the French dressing with a clove of garlic, or cut the clove into slices and mash it with a fork in the oil before adding the vinegar. Garlic is a desirable stimulant in this disease.

Induce the patient to stop eating while the food tastes good. Thorough mastication is of importance.

Do not give desserts.

If constipation is persistent, give a glass of cold water, with a half teaspoonful of salt added, at bedtime, and a glass of cool, not iced, water, early in the morning, an hour before giving the coffee.

Do not depend on large quantities of meat for the nitrogenous portion of the diet; substitute eggs, milk, and ground' nuts. Whole wheat bread well buttered, milk preparations, as koumys, matzoon, clabber and buttermilk, are all advantageous.

Avoid dried fruits, fruits stewed with sugar, pork, veal, old peas, beans, lentils, dry toast, milk toast, rich sauces, meat soups, pies, puddings, cakes, preserves, candies, pickles, and sea foods, with the exception of white-fleshed fish.

May Eat, In Early Stages

Milk and cream

Modified milk with double quantity of sugar of milk

Meigg's Food

Egg and milk

Fruit juices, especially orange and apple juice

Prune pulp

Prunes, steamed, without skins

Grape fruit

Baked apple

Apple sauce

Cranberry jelly

All fruit jellies not too sweet

Coffee, if allowable

Later

Whole wheat bread, well buttered and masticated thoroughly

Cornmeal souffle

Baked potato

Milk soups

Carefully-cooked strained cereals

Spinach

Puree of green peas

Asparagus tips with French dressing

Sliced tomato without seeds

Puree of tomato

Stewed cucumbers

Stewed squash

Nut roll

Almond and apple pudding

Eggs, poached, steamed, and hard-boiled yolks Artichokes Jerusalem artichokes Cauliflower Puree of sorrel Stewed rhubard

Boiled mutton, beef and chicken White fish, broiled or boiled Game

Avoid

All bulk foods

Skins of fruit and vegetables

Pork; veal

All fried foods

Lobsters, crabs, clams, oysters

Mashed potatoes

Boiled cabbage

Underground coarse vegetables, as turnips All complicated sweets

Toast, dry, buttered or milk

Seeds of small fruits

String beans

Pickles of all kinds

Condiments

White bread

Soft drinks

Lemonade

Milk

Chocolate; tea