Milk, in whatever form it is taken, leaves a coating on the tongue and teeth. The heat of the mouth, especially if the patient is feverish, quickly causes changes which give a disagreeable taste and a chance for bacterial action. These bacterial products are carried into the stomach and excite digestive changes through which fermentation and gas formation appear and biliousness may result. This may be avoided if, after taking the milk, the mouth is carefully washed and, in feverish conditions, the tongue gently scraped or swabbed with absorbent cotton dipped in listerine or peroxide of hydrogen. Without such cleansing of the mouth milk may disagree. When from two to three glasses of milk at a meal are taken, less solid food is needed, because the required nutriment is partially supplied by the milk. One reason why milk seems to disagree with many people, is because they lose sight of the fact that milk is an actual food, as well as a beverage, and they eat the usual quantity of food in addition to the milk. As one pint, or two glasses of milk, contains approximately the same amount of nutrition as one-third of a pound of beef, the amount of food to be taken in addition may be readily calculated. The chief reason for the lessened activity of the bowels on a milk diet is because the nourishment in milk is practically all absorbed—there is very little residue and milk gives little rough surface to excite peristaltic action and stimulate the walls of the intestine to activity. The calcium, one of the constituents of milk, tends to lessen the peristaltic action of the intestines and this is one of the causes of constipation. Fruit and coarse bread containing much bran, should be used with a milk diet. Constipation may also be occasioned by drinking milk rapidly. When the hydrochloric acid is very active coagulation may take place so quickly as to cause hard tough curds to form; these enter the intestine undissolved because the gastric juice can act only on the exterior portion; the stomach retains the curds in its effort to dissolve them and fermentation may occur, with irritation and constipation from irregular action. In this case the constipating effect may be overcome by taking the milk in small sips or by the addition of one part of limewater to six parts milk. The limewater causes the curds to be precipitated in small flakes. Limewater may be prepared by putting a heaping teaspoon of unslaked lime with a quart of boiled or distilled water into a corked bottle or Mason jar. Shake thoroughly two or three times during the first hour; then allow the lime to settle, and after twenty-four hours pour or siphon off the clear fluid. Be careful not to allow the lime to be poured off with the water. Barley water or oatmeal water added to milk also prevents the formation of large curds. Milk may also be taken with any variety of gruel—oatmeal, sago, arrowroot, or tapioca.