The American family physician, or, Domestic guide to health : prepared expressly for the use of families, in language adapted to the understanding of the people : arranged in two divisions / by John King.

  • John King
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American family physician, or, Domestic guide to health : prepared expressly for the use of families, in language adapted to the understanding of the people : arranged in two divisions / by John King. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Chicken Soz/p, is a light, nourishing diet, and may be used by many sick persons and convalescents. It is best when made from the lean portions of the chicken, which should be boiled in water to which a little salt has been added, and as the fat and scum arises, it should be removed. Cracker, rice, barley, or toast-bread, may be added to it, to increase its nutritiveness, if desired, and not contra-indicated. When highly seasoned with spices, it becomes an improper diet, especially for dyspeptics and convalescents. Fish furnish an almost endless variety of food for man; and in some countries, especially in the northern parts of the two continents, where vege- tation is scarce, they form the principal diet of the inhabitants. However, they are not so nourishing as the meat of warm-blooded animals, but are sufficiently so to support health and strength. With many stomachs fish-meat is difficult to digest, and when it is eaten habitually, it frequently induces disease of the bowels, and of the skin. Some individuals are very apt to be affected by eating certain kinds of fish, experiencing a disagreeable, uneasy sensation at the stomach, a small amount of fever, and an eruption on the surface of the body; these symptoms are also produced occasionally in deranged conditions of the digestive apparatus. All kinds of fish when out of season, are of difficult digestion and very unhealthy, and in some situations they become poisonous. Salt water fish are always better than those living in fresh water, as they possess a firmer and more palpable flesh, which is less liable to putridity, and is less clammy or slimy. Many persons cannot eat fresh water fish at all, without inducing an attack of cholera-morbus or other difficulty. Fishes having scales are usually more digestible than others ■ thus the cod, shad, trout/perch, fresh herring, plaice, flounder, turbot, whiting sole, &c, are the most healthy and nutritious, while eels, skate, sturgeon mackerel, salmon, &c, are much less digestible and wholesome. Indeed all fish which abound in oil, are stimulating, and difficult of digestion. Fish are best cooked by boiling; when fried or stewed they are rendered quite indigestible. Butter should not be used as a sauce for fish, nor the acid fruits or jellies, as they almost always produce heaviness or uneasiness of the stomach; milk is a very improper article to be used at the same time with fish, frequently inducing severe diarrhea, cholera-morbus, &c. When fish are dried and salted, they become less nutritious and digestible, and should never be eaten, except by the healthy and hard-working, and even by them should be used very sparingly. Crabs and Lobsters, are by no means wholesome or digestible, though frequently eaten with impunity. Perhaps the meat of the claws is the most easily digestible. They are very apt to disagree with some persons, giving rise to an acrid sensation in the throat, pain and heaviness at the stomach, nausea depression, giddiness, and frequently a serious colic. Many persons are attacked with a nettle-rash, whenever they eat the meat of either of these crustacean animals. Severe vomiting and purging frequently follow their use: and when eaten in excess, they have occasioned stupefaction, unconsciousness and other symptoms of apoplexy. It is said that old English cheese, grated] and freely partaken of, will act as an antidote to the poisonous effects of these crustaceans.