The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English Part 20

SOUPS. The nutritious properties, tone, and sweetness of soup depend in the first place upon the freshness and quality of the meat; secondly on the manner in which it is boiled. Soups should be nicely and delicately seasoned, according to the taste of the consumer, by using parsley, sage, savory, thyme, sweet marjoram, sweet basil, or any of the vegetable condiments. These may be raised in the garden, or obtained at the drug stores, sifted and prepared for use. In extracting the juices of meats, in order that soups may be most nutritious, it is important that the meat be put into _cold_ water, or that which is not so hot as to coagulate the alb.u.men (which would prevent it from being extracted), and then, by slow heat and a simmering process, the most nutritious properties will be brought out.

BEEF SOUP may be made of any bone of the beef, by putting it into cold water, adding a little salt, and skimming it well just before it boils.

If a vegetable flavor be desired, celery, carrots, onions, turnips, cabbage, or potatoes, may be added, in sufficient quant.i.ties to suit the taste.

MUTTON SOUP may be made from the fore-quarter, in the same manner as described above, thickened with pearl-barley or rice, and flavored to suit the taste.

BOILED FISH. Clean the fish nicely, then sprinkle flour on a cloth and wrap it around them; salt the water, and, when it boils, put in the fish; let them boil half an hour, then carefully remove them to a platter, adding egg sauce and parsley. To _bake fish_, prepare by cleaning, scaling, etc., and let them remain in salt water for a short time. Make a stuffing of the crumbs of light bread, and add to it a little salt, pepper, b.u.t.ter, and sweet herbs, and stir with a spoon.

Then fill the fish with the stuffing and sew it up. Put on b.u.t.ter, salt, pepper, and flour, having enough water in the dish to keep it from burning, and baste often. A four pound fish will bake in fifty or sixty minutes.

BROILED STEAK. Sirloin and porter-house steaks should be broiled quickly. Preserve them on ice for a day or two and their tenderness is much increased. Never broil them until the meal is ready to be served.

BOILED HEAT. When meat is to be boiled for _eating,_ put it into boiling water, by which its juices are coagulated and its richness preserved.

The slower it boils, the more tender, plump, and white it will be. Meat should be removed as soon as done, or it will lose its flavor and become soggy.

PORK STEAKS. The best steaks are cut off the shoulder--ham steaks being rather too dry. They should be well fried, in order to destroy the little living parasites, called Trichinae which sometimes infest this kind of meat. They are introduced into the stomach by eating ham, pork, or sausages made from the flesh of hogs infested by them. Thorough cooking destroys them, and those who will persist in the use of swine's flesh can afford to have it "_done brown._"

BAKED MUTTON. To bake mutton well, a person should have a brisk, sharp fire, and keep the meat well basted. It requires two hours to bake a leg of mutton, weighing eight pounds.

BREAD. The health and happiness of a family depend, to a certain extent, on good, well-baked bread. At all events, our enjoyment would be greater if it were only better prepared. We make the following extract from an article printed by the State Board of Health, concerning the food of the people of Ma.s.sachusetts: "As an example of good bread we would mention that which is always to be had at the restaurant of Parker's Hotel, in Boston. It is not better than is found on the continent of Europe on all the great lines of travel, and in common use by millions of people in Germany and France; but with us, it is a rare example of what bread may be. It is made from a mixture of flour, such as is generally sold in our markets, water, salt, and yeast--nothing else. The yeast is made from malt, potatoes, and hops. _The dough is kneaded from one and a half to two hours, and is then thoroughly baked."_ The truth seems to be that the kneading, which in this country takes the housewife's time and muscle, in Europe is done by the help of machinery. So here, in large villages and cities, people might furnish themselves with good bread, by means of co-operative a.s.sociations, even at a less cost than at present.

BEVERAGES.

WATER. The importance of water in the economy of nature is obvious to all. It is the most abundant substance of which we have knowledge. It composes four-fifths of the weight of vegetables, and three-fourths of that of animals. It is essential to the continuance of organic life.

Water is universally present in all of the tissues and fluids of the body. It is not only abundant in the blood and secretions, but it is also an ingredient of the solids of the body. According to the most accurate computations, water is found to const.i.tute from two-thirds to three-fourths of the entire weight of the human body. The following table, compiled by Robin and Verdeil, shows the proportion of water per thousand parts in different solids and fluids:

QUANt.i.tY OF WATER IN 1,000 PARTS.

Teeth, 100 Bones, 130 Cartilage, 550 Muscles, 750 Ligaments, 768 Brain, 789 Blood, 795 Synovial fluid, 805 Bile, 880 Milk, 887 Pancreatic juice, 900 Urine, 936 Lymph, 960 Gastric juice, 975 Perspiration, 986 Saliva, 995

THE NATURAL DRINK OF MAN. Water const.i.tutes the natural drink of man. No other liquid can supply its place. Its presence, however, in the body is not permanent. It is discharged from the body in different ways; by the urine, the feces, the breath, and the perspiration. In the first two, it is in a liquid form, in the others in a vaporous form. It is estimated that about forty-eight per cent. is discharged in the liquid, and fifty-two per cent. in the vaporous form; but the absolute as well as the relative amount discharged depends upon a variety of circ.u.mstances.

Water is never found perfectly pure, since it holds in solution more or less of almost every substance with, which it comes in contact. Rain falling in the country remote from habitations is the purest water that nature furnishes, for it is then only charged with the natural gases of the atmosphere. In cities it absorbs organic and gaseous impurities, as it falls through the air, and flowing over roofs of houses carries with it soot and dust. Water from melted snow is purer than rain-water, since it descends in a solid form, and is therefore incapable of absorbing gases. Rain-water is not adapted to drinking purposes, unless well filtered. All water, except that which has been distilled, contains air, and it is due to this fact, that aquatic animals can live in it; for example, put a fish in distilled water and it will soon die.

MINERAL IMPURITIES. Rain-water, which has filtered through the soil and strata of the earth, dissolves the soluble materials, and carries them down to lower levels, until they finally collect in the sea. Common well, spring, and mineral waters contain from 5 to 60 grains to the gallon; sea-water contains 2,000 grains while in some parts of the Dead Sea there are 20,000 grams to the gallon. The princ.i.p.al mineral impurities of well and spring water are lime, magnesia, soda, and oxide of iron, combined with carbonic and sulphuric acids, forming carbonates, sulphates, and chloride of sodium, or common salt. The most general, however, are carbonate and sulphate of lime.

Mineral waters are usually obtained from springs which contain a considerable amount of saline matter. Those waters which abound in salts of iron are called _chalybeate_ or _ferruginous_. Those containing salt are termed _saline_. Those in which contain sulphur are termed _sulphurous_. Water derives the quality of hardness from the salts of lime--chiefly the sulphates--which it contains. Hard water, being an imperfect solvent, is unsuitable for was.h.i.+ng purposes. There are two varieties of hardness, one of which is temporary, being due to the presence of carbonic acid gas in the water which holds the salts in solution and may be removed by merely boiling the water and thus expelling the gas when the salts are deposited, while the other is permanent and can only be removed by the distillation of the water. It has been ascertained that twelve pounds of the best hard soap must be added to 10,000 gallons of water of one degree of hardness before a lather will remain and, consequently, 0.12 lb. to 100 gallons of water is a measure of one degree of hardness. Since hard water is not so useful in cooking and other domestic purposes, as soft water, causing a great waste of labor and material, it is often highly desirable to soften it, which is effected by the addition of lime in what is known as _Clark's process_. One ounce of quicklime should be added to 1000 gallons of water for each degree of hardness. It should be first slacked and stirred up in a few gallons and then thoroughly mixed with the entire quant.i.ty. Then it should be allowed to remain, and will become clear in about three hours, but should not be drunk for twelve hours.

The purity of drinking water is a matter of much importance. That which contains a minute quant.i.ty of lead will give rise to all the symptoms of lead poisoning, if the use of it be sufficiently prolonged. An account is given of the poisoning of the royal family of France, many of whom suffered from this cause when in exile at Claremont. The amount of lead was only one grain in the gallon. Care should therefore be taken to avoid drinking the water which has been contained in leaden pipes. It should always be allowed to run a few minutes before being used.

An excess of saline ingredients, which in small quant.i.ties are harmless, frequently produces marked disorders of the digestive organs. A small amount of putrescent matter habitually introduced into the system, as in the use of food, is productive of the most serious results, which can be traced to the direct action of the poison introduced. A case is recorded of a certain locality favorably situated with regard to the access of pure air, where an epidemic of fever broke out much to the astonishment of the inhabitants. Upon observation it was found that the attacks of fever were limited to those families who used water from a neighboring well. The disagreeable taste of the water which had been observed, was subsequently traced to the bursting of a sewer, which had discharged a part of its contents into the well. When the cause was removed, there was no recurrence of the evil effects.

ORGANIC IMPURITIES. "Water is liable to organic contamination from a mult.i.tude of causes, such as drainage from dwellings, dust, insects, the decaying of vegetable and animal matter. These impurities may be mechanically suspended or held in solution in the water. Although organic impurities, which are mechanically suspended in water, are poisonous, yet they are generally a.s.sociated with animalculea, and these feed upon, and finally consume them. Good water never contains animalculae. They are never found in freshly fallen rain-water, remote from dwellings, but abound, to a greater or less extent in cisterns, marshes, ponds, and rivers. These little workers serve a useful purpose since they consume the dead organic matter from the water, and, having fulfilled their mission, sink to the bottom and die. Water which contains organic matter is exceedingly dangerous to health, and its use should be carefully avoided.

In low lands where the current of streams is sluggish, and shallow pools abound, the water is apt to be more or less infected with decaying vegetable substances. Many people living in such localities, and wis.h.i.+ng to obtain water with as little trouble as possible, dig a hole in the ground, a few feet in depth, and allow the stagnant surface water to acc.u.mulate. This water is used for drinking and cooking. The result is that ague prevails in such localities.

Care should be taken that wells, from which the water is used for household purposes, are located at a distance from barn-yards, privies, sinks, vaults, and stagnant pools.

PURIFICATION OF WATER. There are various methods of purifying water. It may be accomplished by distillation, which is the most perfect method; by filtration through sand, crushed charcoal, and other porous substances, which deprives it of suspended impurities and living organisms; by boiling, which destroys the vitality of all animal and vegetable matters, drives out the gases and precipitates carbonate of lime, which composes the crust frequently seen upon the inside of tea-kettles or boilers; by the use of chemical agents, which may be employed to destroy or precipitate the deleterious substances. Alum is often used to cleanse roily water, two or three grains in solution, being sufficient for a quart. It causes the impurities to settle to the bottom, so that the clear water can be poured or dipped out for use. One or two grains of the permanganate of pota.s.sium will render wholesome a gallon of water containing animal impurities.

HOW TO USE WATER. Very little if any water should be taken at meal time, since the salivary glands furnish an abundance of watery fluid to a.s.sist in mastication. When these glands are aided with water to "wash down"

the food, their functions become feeble and impaired. The gastric juice is diluted and digestion is weakened. Large draughts of cold water ought never to be indulged in, since they cause derangement of the stomach.

When the body is overheated, the use of much water is injurious. It should only be taken in small quant.i.ties. Thirst may be partially allayed, without injury, by holding cold water in the mouth for a short time and then spitting it out, taking care to swallow but very little.

Travelers frequently experience inconvenience from change of water. If the means are at hand, let them purify their drinking water, if not, they should drink as little as possible. Persons who visit the banks of the Ohio, Missouri, or Mississippi rivers and similar localities, almost invariably suffer from some form of gastric or intestinal disease. Water standing in close rooms soon becomes unfit to drink and should not be used. A drink of cold water taken on going to bed, and another on rising are conducive to health, especially in the case of persons troubled with constipation. "_Drink water_" said the celebrated Dubois to the young persons who consulted him, "_drink water, I tell you!_" Du Moulin, the great medical authority of his time, wrote, just previous to his death, "_I leave two great physicians behind me--diet and water_."

TEA AND COFFEE. These substances are almost universally used as beverages, and when properly employed, serve a four-fold purpose: they quench thirst, excite an agreeable exhilaration, repress the waste of the system, and supply nourishment. In consequence of being generally used at meal times, their stimulant properties are employed to promote digestion, and consequently they are not so objectionable as they might otherwise be. The liquids introduced into the stomach at meal times should not be cold. Tea and coffee are drunk warm, while water, except in a few instances, is always drunk cold, the effects of which have already been shown. That their inordinate use may be injurious no body can deny, but this is equally true of other beverages, even pure, cold water. Scientific investigators inform us that the use of these agents as beverages, when judiciously employed, is not injurious. It has been urged that they are poisonous, but if they are, they are very slow in their operation.

When properly prepared, they are very agreeable beverages, and as man will drink more or less at meals, they are allowable; for if their use were excluded, some other beverage would be sought after, and quite likely one of an alcoholic character employed, so of two evils, if this be an evil, let us choose the least. Unlike alcoholic stimulants, they exhilarate without a depressing reaction after their influence has pa.s.sed off. But one cup should be drunk at a meal, and it should be of moderate strength. The use of large quant.i.ties of drink at meals r.e.t.a.r.ds digestion by diluting the digestive fluids. The excessive use of large quant.i.ties of strong tea or coffee stimulates the brain and causes wakefulness, and produces irritability of the nervous system. When they are productive of such effects, their use is injurious, and should be considerably moderated or wholly discontinued. No criterion can be given by which the amount the system will tolerate can be regulated. What one person may take with impunity, may be deleterious to an other.

Individuals differ greatly in this respect. There are some who cannot tolerate them at all, either because of some peculiarity of const.i.tution, or on account of disease. And sometimes when tea is agreeable and beneficial, coffee disagrees with the individual and _vice versa._ Persons of nervous habits whether natural or acquired, are apt to find their wakefulness and irritability increased by the use of tea, particularly if strong, while coffee will have a tranquilizing effect.

Persons of a lymphatic or bilious temperament often find that coffee disagrees with them, aggravating their troubles and causing biliousness, constipation, and headache, while tea proves agreeable and beneficial.

Whenever they disagree with the system, the best rule is to abandon their use. We find many persons who do not use either, and yet enjoy health, a fact which proves that they are not by any means indispensable, and, no doubt, were it customary to go without them, their absence would be but slightly missed.

Tea and coffee are adulterated to a very great extent, and persons using them will be greatly imposed upon. This is an evil we cannot remedy. If people make use of them, their experience in selecting them must be their guide; however, it is believed that the Black and j.a.pan varieties of tea are the least apt to be adulterated, and coffee, to insure purity, should be purchased in the berry, and ground by the purchaser.

In preparing tea an infusion should be made by adding boiling water to the leaves, and permitting them to steep for a few minutes only, for a concentrated decoction, made by boiling for a long time, liberates the astringent and bitter principles and drives off the agreeable aroma which resides in a volatile oil.

Coffee should be prepared by adding cold water to the ground berry, and raising it slowly to the boiling point. Long-continued boiling liberates the astringent and bitter principles upon which its stimulant effects to a great extent depend, and drives off with the steam the aromatic oil from which the agreeable taste is derived.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

These are divided into three cla.s.ses: malted, fermented, and distilled.

They all contain more or less alcohol, and their effects are, therefore, in some respects similar, and, in the words of Dr. B.W. Richardson, the great English authority on hygiene: "To say this man only drinks ale, that man only drinks wine, while a third drinks spirits, is merely to say, when the apology is unclothed, that all drink the same danger. * *

Alcohol is a universal intoxicant, and in the higher orders of animals is capable of inducing the most systematic phenomena of disease. But it is reserved for man himself to exhibit these phenomena in their purest form, and to present, through them, in the morbid conditions belonging to his age, a distinct pathology. Bad as this is, it might be worse; for if the evils of alcohol were made to extend equally to animals lower than man, we should soon have, none that were tameable, none that were workable, and none that were eatable." Researches have shown that the proportion of half a drachm of alcohol to the pound weight of the body, is the quant.i.ty which usually produces intoxication, and that an increase of this amount to one drachm immediately endangers the life of the individual. The first symptom which attracts attention, when alcohol commences to take effect upon the body, is an increase in the number of the pulsations of the heart. Dr. Parkes and Count Wolowicz conducted a series of interesting experiments on young adult men. They counted the pulsations of the heart, at regular intervals, during periods when the subject drank only water; and then they counted the beats of the heart in the same individual during successive periods in which alcohol was drunk in increasing quant.i.ties.

The following details are taken from their report:

"The highest of the daily means of the pulse observed during the first or water period was 77.5; but on this day two observations were deficient. The next highest daily mean was 77 beats.

If instead of the mean of the eight days, or 73.57, we compare the mean of this one day, viz., 77 beats per minute, with the alcoholic days, so as to be sure not to over-estimate the action of the alcohol, we find:

On the ninth day, with one fluid ounce of alcohol, the heart beat 430 times more.

On the tenth day, with two fluid ounces, 1,872 times more.

On the eleventh day, with four fluid ounces, 12,960 times more.

On the twelfth day, with six fluid ounces, 30,672 times more.

On the thirteenth day, with eight fluid ounces, 23,904 times more.

On the fourteenth day, with eight fluid ounces, 25,488 times more.

But as there was ephemeral fever on the twelfth day, it is right to make a deduction, and to estimate the number of beats in that day as midway between the twelfth and twenty-third days, or 18,432. Adopting this, the mean daily excess of beats during the alcoholic days was 14,492, or an increase of rather more than thirteen per cent.

The first day of alcohol gave an excess of one per cent., and the last of twenty-three per cent.; and the mean of these two gives almost the same percentage of excess as the mean of the six days.

Admitting that each beat of the heart was as strong during the alcoholic as in the water period (and it was really more powerful), the heart on the last two days of alcohol was doing one-fifth more work.

Adopting the lowest estimate which has been given of the daily work done by the heart, viz., as equal to 122 tons lifted one foot, the heart, during the alcoholic period, did daily work in excess equal to lifting 15.8 tons one foot, and in the last two days did extra work to the amount of twenty-four tons lifted as far.

The period of rest for the heart was shortened, though, perhaps, not to such an extent as would be inferred from the number of beats; for each contraction was sooner over. The beat on the fifth and sixth days after alcohol was left off, and apparently at the time when the last traces of alcohol were eliminated, showed, in the sphygmographic tracing, signs of unusual feebleness; and, perhaps, in consequence of this, when the brandy quickened the heart again, the tracing showed a more rapid contraction of the ventricles, but less power than in the alcoholic period. The brandy acted, in fact, on a heart whose nutrition had not been perfectly restored."