PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Cleanliness is eminently essential in cooking for the sick and for infants. The vessel in which milk or gruel is boiled should not be used for anything greasy or seasoned; a sauce pan in which broth has been made, flavored perhaps with onions or parsley, unless very nicely cleaned will impart a disagreeable taste to delicate food. Whatever vessel is used the food should not be allowed to remain in it, but should be poured out as soon as done, and the vessel put to soak in cold water. If it is of tin it should soon be cleansed with wood ashes, but enameled sauce pans or granitized iron ware may be washed clean; when taken down for use wipe with a clean, dry cloth. For stirring use either a silver or wooden spoon; not one of iron or other metal. The earthenware dishes, basins or whatever else may be used for keeping food already cooked, or for milk, should be scalded after using, made perfectly dry with a clean cloth, and left to become quite cold before milk broth or whatever it may be, is put into them. For preserving liquids (broth, gruel, or milk), a wide, shallow vessel is better than a thin, narrow one; milk should never be kept in a jug; cooked food should not be shut in with a lid; a hair sieve, or wire cover, or common colander may preserve from cats, mice, slugs, &c. The cake of fat which collects on the top of broth tends to preserve the liquor while it remains unbroken; but if the skin or fat at top is broken, and if the broth or gruel is designed for use at a subsequent meal, the fat should be removed, and the remainder should be transferred to a clean, dry vessel. FOOD FOR CONVALESCENTS. Many questions in regard to diet are left by the physician to the nurse, especially while she has the care of convalescents. I give for her guidance a few more aphorisms and directions: 1. While it is true that as a general rule people who like salt, vinegar, &c., ought to be allowed to gratify their taste, and that the cravings of a sick person are not always to be denied, yet appetite and taste were intended to govern the choice and quantity of food in health; and even then, they should be guided by reason and experience. Such articles as fruit, jam, cake, cheese, butter, and milk may generally be taken if there is a craving for them, but if they are not digested, the stomach must be consulted, and not the cravings. Milk and eggs are important articles of food, but they must not be forced upon the patient; cheese is sometimes craved; it is concentrated nutriment, but in some person’s stomachs it is digestible, and it may perhaps favor digestion of other food; do not entirely disregard the desires and taste of the patient; as a rule if meat is craved it is allowable, and it is better to chew and swallow it, than it is to chew it and spit out its nutritive contents.