After the fast, a liquid and semiliquid diet is followed until inflammation is relieved and diarrhea and vomiting have ceased. Milk, strained gruels, broths, strained soups, buttermilk, eggs (soft cooked or raw), beef juice, barley water, custards, junket gelatins, soft puddings, etc., are most nourishing and cause little irritation. (See page 313, Semisolid Foods.) Milk should be mixed with limewater to prevent the formation of large curds and should be sipped. Water should not be taken, as it tends to increase the diarrhea. Ice may be held in the mouth to relieve thirst. All irritating foods, such as coarse vegetables, pickles, acid fruits and fruits with coarse seeds, candies, beer, wines, and salads must be omitted. _Chronic Enteritis_ has the same general cause as acute enteritis, though its onset is slow and it takes a correspondingly longer time to correct. A milk diet for two or three weeks may be necessary to rest the bowels. When food is taken, if undigested particles appear in the stool, it may be necessary to use predigested foods for a while. [Sidenote: Dysentery] If acute, dysentery demands complete rest in bed. The diet, in both acute and chronic cases, must be confined to easily digested foods such as peptonized or pancreatinized milk (see pages 99 and 308), boiled milk, meat juice, and the white of egg, beaten and served with milk. Blackberry brandy and tea made from wild cherry bark tend to check the inflammation. During convalescence, care must be taken not to overfeed. Fruits and vegetables should be avoided. Begin a more liberal diet with an increased amount of beef juice, gradually adding tender beefsteak, roast beef, fish, white meat of chicken, eggs, custards, jelly, dry toast, blancmange, well-boiled rice, and other easily digested food. The beef and egg are particularly valuable, because of the anemia occasioned by the loss of blood. _DERANGEMENTS OF THE LIVER_ The liver is not, in a strict sense, a digestive organ, but the digested food must pass through it and undergo certain chemical changes. For a fuller understanding of the reasons for the following suggestions regarding diet in liver derangements, the chapter on the “Work of the Liver,” pages 151-152 should be reread. It will be recalled that the liver acts not only on the foods, but it also stands on guard to neutralize poisonous ferments, due to putrefactions absorbed from the intestines, and to render them harmless. To a limited extent it also oxidizes alcohol. After the gorging of a heavy meal, the overloaded blood and liver express themselves in a sluggishness of the brain and one feels mentally as well as physically inert. Since both carbohydrates and protein undergo chemical changes in the liver, it is evident that a diet consisting of an excess of either, must overwork the liver, not only through the nutritive food elements absorbed, but through the toxic substances which may be produced.