The Cleveland Medical Gazette, Vol. 1, No. 4, February 1886Various
History
The Cleveland Medical Gazette, Vol. 1, No. 4, February 1886
Various
Medicine -- Periodicals; Surgery -- Periodicals
Often you will meet with the reply: "I have already tried this diet,
I was put on milk diet once before by Dr. ---- and it did not help
me any, I even felt worse afterwards." If you inquire more closely,
however, you will find that they drank milk several times a day,
but ate bread with it, soaking this in the milk. This is what is
understood to be a milk cure. Gentlemen! I am sorry to say that this
misunderstanding is not confined to the general public, but that some
physicians even do not know better, and consider such a course of diet
a milk diet. I cannot impress it upon your minds any too strongly
not to allow yourselves to be diverted from your purpose by any such
assertions, but to order another course of milk diet, wherever you
find it indicated, and see to it that it is carried out properly this
time. You will thereby occasionally meet with excellent success where
a previous wrong attempt in the same direction failed.
After the patient has been free from pain from eight to ten days, I
then add to his diet soft boiled eggs with a slight addition of salt,
beginning on the first day with one half of an egg. If this is well
borne I gradually allow more day by day, until he is able to digest
four or five a day without difficulty. Eggs do not agree with some
patients. In such cases I pass on the use of meat. I have beefsteak
chopped fine, roasted in little meat cakes of the size of a silver half
dollar. One of these is given to begin with, and if well borne repeated
every two or three hours as long as there is no pain. When eggs agree
I prefer to give them for a few days before beginning with the meat,
waiting until such patients can digest four or five eggs a day. After
the meat has been borne well in small quantities for a while, I
gradually increase the quantity taken per day until it reach a pound or
two.
You cannot be too careful and should instruct the patient to return to
the strict milk diet as soon as any pain is felt, no matter how nicely
he may have been getting along up to the time. Not until the patient
has been entirely free from pain for several weeks is it advisable to
allow the use of cereals boiled in milk, such as rice or tapioca. Then
he can also be allowed to take a quarter of a biscuit (well baked) at
each meal. A full meal, however, in the sense in which it is ordinarily
understood, a large quantity of food taken at one time, is still to
be avoided. It is better to give small quantities of food oftener, in
order not to distend the stomach, and thus run the danger of too great
a strain upon the newly healed ulcer.
These meat cakes made of beef can be taken for a week or so, and then
if well borne other kinds of meat may be occasionally substituted.
_Wine and alcoholic liquors in general_ are to be avoided for several
months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account