The diet will probably be ordered by him with as much or more
care than the medicines, and the nurse's business will be, first, to see
that his directions are implicitly obeyed, and, second, that the food
is properly cooked. Good cooking is an essential to health. It is
even more an essential to recovery from sickness, but it is the rarest
of accomplishments. Burned toast, scorched gruels, flavorless beef-
tea or broth, with a coat of floating fat, are offered to the uncertain
or entirely wanting appetite, which rejects them involuntarily.
Nothing seems more difficult than the perfect preparation of simple
things. How many persons are capable of sending up a perfect
slice of toast, crisp, golden brown, hot? How many, a cup of tea,
fragrant, steaming and alluring ? The gruel is lumpy ; the chop
scorched outside and raw within ; the egg overdone or underdone.
To make this part of nursing easier, a set of receipts, endorsed by the
best physicians and long in use by the writer, are given at the end
of this article. Every one has been tested over and over, and if
directions are followed to the letter, there cannot be failure.
There is no doubt that many patients are actually starved in the
midst of plenty. A weak patient who has had a feverish night has a
dry mouth, and the thought of any solid food before ten or eleven
IN THE sick-room; OR, SANITARY NURSING. 165
A. M. is disgusting. The nurse, therefore, does not urge it, and ex-
haustion comes on, when a spoonful of beef-tea, of egg-nogg, or
some form of good gruel, would have kept up the strength. To wa.sh
out the mouth in any case of sickness, but especially in fevers, is a
great comfort, and the physician will give a prescription for some
liquors of permanganate of potash, which in water will give the
mouth a fresh, cool feeling, even in high fever.
A patient can swallow liquid when solid foods are impossible, but
no matter in what form, the hours for taking it should be punctually
attended to. A delay of even five minutes will often destroy the
appetite of a nervous patient, and in severe cases delay may mean
actual death. " Let the food come at the right time, and be taken
away, eaten or uneaten, at the right time, but never let a patient
have something always standing by him, if you don't v»^ish to dis-
gust him with everything."
Find out if you can at what hours a patient feels most inclined to
eat. Often when there seems no way of tempting appetite, and meals
go away untasted, it may be possible by a change in hours to succeed
better. Often, too, the being watched anxiously will destroy appe-
tite. Leave the patient alone as much as possible while eating, and
if there is failure at one meal, make it up by some addition to the
next. Leave very little to his judgment, and try also to estimate
amounts properly and to learn how to tell what has been eaten. It is
very easy to find out what is meant by an ounce of meat or drink.
Often a patient will turn over food and give the impression of having
eaten it, and a careless observer will take away the tray, without
noticing that next to nothing is missing, yet the doctor will be told
that the meals have been taken about as usual.
Page 103
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The diet will probably be ordered by him with as much or more care than the medicines, and the nurse's business will be, first, to see that his directions are implicitly obeyed, and, second, that the food is properly cooked. Good cooking is an essential to health. It is even more an essential to recovery from sickness, but it is the rarest of accomplishments. Burned toast, scorched gruels, flavorless beeftea or broth, with a coat of floating fat, are offered to the uncertain or entirely wanting appetite, which rejects them involuntarily. Nothing seems more difficult than the perfect preparation of simple things. How many persons are capable of sending up a perfect slice of toast, crisp, golden brown, hot? How many, a cup of tea, fragrant, steaming and alluring ? The gruel is lumpy ; the chop scorched outside and raw within ; the egg overdone or underdone. To make this part of nursing easier, a set of receipts, endorsed by the best physicians and long in use by the writer, are given at the end of this article. Every one has been tested over and over, and if directions are followed to the letter, there cannot be failure.
There is no doubt that many patients are actually starved in the midst of plenty. A weak patient who has had a feverish night has a dry mouth, and the thought of any solid food before ten or eleven
A. M. is disgusting. The nurse, therefore, does not urge it, and exhaustion comes on, when a spoonful of beef-tea, of egg-nogg, or some form of good gruel, would have kept up the strength. To wa.sh out the mouth in any case of sickness, but especially in fevers, is a great comfort, and the physician will give a prescription for some liquors of permanganate of potash, which in water will give the mouth a fresh, cool feeling, even in high fever.
A patient can swallow liquid when solid foods are impossible, but no matter in what form, the hours for taking it should be punctually attended to. A delay of even five minutes will often destroy the appetite of a nervous patient, and in severe cases delay may mean actual death. " Let the food come at the right time, and be taken away, eaten or uneaten, at the right time, but never let a patient have something always standing by him, if you don't v»^ish to disgust him with everything."
Find out if you can at what hours a patient feels most inclined to eat. Often when there seems no way of tempting appetite, and meals go away untasted, it may be possible by a change in hours to succeed better. Often, too, the being watched anxiously will destroy appetite. Leave the patient alone as much as possible while eating, and if there is failure at one meal, make it up by some addition to the next. Leave very little to his judgment, and try also to estimate amounts properly and to learn how to tell what has been eaten. It is very easy to find out what is meant by an ounce of meat or drink. Often a patient will turn over food and give the impression of having eaten it, and a careless observer will take away the tray, without noticing that next to nothing is missing, yet the doctor will be told that the meals have been taken about as usual.