_Mussels_ are nutritious when well prepared and are rapidly gaining in popularity. _Clams_ furnish a valuable and nutritious food when prepared in chowder form. Clam broth will often be retained on an irritable stomach when other food is rejected by it. Care should be taken to ascertain the method of their production as typhoid fever has been contracted from eating shell fish whose feeding beds were near or in polluted water. * * * * * [Sidenote: Eggs] Eggs are excellent articles of food for nutrition and for tissue building. They have practically the same value in the diet as meat, and make a very good substitute for meat. Egg yolk in abundance is often prescribed when it is necessary to supply a very nutritious and easily assimilated diet. Eggs consist chiefly of two nutrients—protein and fat (ten per cent.). Because they contain so large a proportion of protein they are classified as nitrogenous foods. The yolk, which is about one-third fat, contains iron, sulphur, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. The white contains some fat and phosphorus. The white and the yolk contain equal quantities of protein. The white of the egg is almost pure albumin. The dark stain made by eggs on silver is due to the sulphur. The iron in the yolk is a valuable assistant in building red blood corpuscles. Eggs, in common with other proteins, are changed, mostly in the stomach, into peptone. That not digested in the stomach, as is the case with other proteins, is changed in the intestine. If the egg is old, or if its absorption is delayed in the intestine, it decomposes, producing gas, and may cause intestinal disorder. For this reason no stale egg should ever be served, especially to an invalid. One reason why eggs disagree with some is because too much fat is eaten at the same time. Egg yolk contains fat and if much extra fat is eaten indigestion and fermentation in the intestine may result. This is particularly true in those who digest fat with difficulty. When eggs seem to disagree or the system does not assimilate them well on account of the fat in the yolk, and eggs are desirable to supply the protein in the diet, the whites, which contain practically no fat, may be used. They should be well beaten and if digestion is weak they may be mixed with fruit juices. The citric acid in lemons and oranges partially digests the egg, the gastric juice quickly changing it to peptone. One method of preparing eggs, which is especially valuable for those having delicate stomachs, is in egg lemonade or orangeade. Thoroughly beat the egg, add the juice of half a lemon or orange, sugar to taste, and fill the glass with water. Grape juice, cream, and cocoa, if assimilated, may be used in place of lemon or orange, in order to give variety when it is necessary to use eggs freely. Eggnog is another means of taking raw eggs.