Scorbutic patients are an exception, they
often crave for sweetmeats and jams.
[Sidenote: Jelly.]
Jelly is another article of diet in great favour with nurses and friends
of the sick; even if it could be eaten solid, it would not nourish, but
it is simply the height of folly to take 1/8 oz. of gelatine and make it
into a certain bulk by dissolving it in water and then to give it to the
sick, as if the mere bulk represented nourishment. It is now known that
jelly does not nourish, that it has a tendency to produce diarrhoea,--and
to trust to it to repair the waste of a diseased constitution is simply
to starve the sick under the guise of feeding them. If 100 spoonfuls of
jelly were given in the course of the day, you would have given one
spoonful of gelatine, which spoonful has no nutritive power whatever.
And, nevertheless, gelatine contains a large quantity of nitrogen, which
is one of the most powerful elements in nutrition; on the other hand,
beef tea may be chosen as an illustration of great nutrient power in
sickness, co-existing with a very small amount of solid nitrogenous
matter.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98