It is always a mistake to leave food beside a patient any length of time after the patient has had time to eat it. If he has no desire for it when it is first presented, the chances are small that the desire will come if the food is allowed to stay in sight. Besides the exposure to the floating dust made up of the undesirable elements of a sick room will render the food unfit for use at another time. Food substances are the soil in which bacteria flourish. A spray of maiden hair fern or any of the dainty green effects is always suitable for decoration, as are many flowers. The use of flowers on a tray should be restricted to a single blossom with a touch of green, or a full bloom flower of the dainty varieties. Large bouquets on an invalid’s tray are in bad taste, as are many flowers that elsewhere would be appreciated. Every hospital experience ought to be a practical lesson to the patient in how to serve food. A taste for the dainty and beautiful, for wholesome and simple things, may be created there that will permanently influence the sick one to higher ideals of living. And certainly the manner of serving food is a pretty fair indication of the tone of the institution. Refinement or absence of refinement will be detected at a glance by one who has a keen appreciation of the aesthetic. The best results in food service will never be secured in any hospital until some one person is appointed whose chief business is the preparation of special diets and the oversight of serving. In many large or well-regulated hospitals this matter is in the hands of women specially trained in dietetics, and there one has a right to expect better service than in institutions where one overworked woman must attend to that and a dozen other things, or where the responsibility of serving food is divided among many. If the person in charge has had in addition to the training in dietetics practical experience as a hospital nurse, still better service may be expected. A genuine sympathetic interest, or as some one else has termed it, “an affectionate interest,” in the people for whom the food is prepared, a keeping in mind the Golden Rule in serving and preparing food, as in other departments of the hospital, is fully as important as a knowledge of the science of nutrition. The soul life of the individual can find abundant opportunities for its expression in the diet kitchen as in the ward. There is a field here for specializing which is fully as worthy of a nurse’s attention as some of the other lines of nursing. CHAPTER X. [Sidenote: Hospital Dietaries] The following dietary regulations have been adopted in the New York Hospital: “All patients shall be furnished the regular house diet, unless otherwise specially directed by the attending physician or surgeon. As a substitute for the house diet there may be furnished, on the order of the attending physician or surgeon only, either of the following: “1. Restricted diet. “2. Milk diet.