Again, if the patient has attained to eating meat, it is supposed that
to give him meat is the only thing needful for his recovery; whereas
scorbutic sores have been actually known to appear among sick persons
living in the midst of plenty in England, which could be traced to no
other source than this, viz.: that the nurse, depending on meat alone,
had allowed the patient to be without vegetables for a considerable
time, these latter being so badly cooked that he always left them
untouched. Arrowroot is another grand dependence of the nurse. As a
vehicle for wine, and as a restorative quickly prepared, it is all very
well. But it is nothing but starch and water. Flour is both more
nutritive, and less liable to ferment, and is preferable wherever it can
be used.
[Sidenote: Milk, butter, cream, &c.]
Again, milk and the preparations from milk, are a most important
article of food for the sick. Butter is the lightest kind of animal fat,
and though it wants the sugar and some of the other elements which there
are in milk, yet it is most valuable both in itself and in enabling the
patient to eat more bread.
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