Part 79

Composition of oatmeal:

Nitrogenous matter 12.6% Carbohydrates, starch, etc. 63.8% Fatty matter 5.6% Mineral matter 3.0% Water 15.0% ------- Total 100.00%

LETHERBY.

From Prof. Mott's Chart of the Composition, Digestibility, and Nutritive Value of Food.

For a further account of micro-organisms in milk, see the chapter on Milk.

George Kennan, in his accounts of his perilous journeyings through Siberia, bears ample testimony to the comforting effects of hot tea. Often when he and his companion were chilled through, and almost dead with cold and fatigue, after many hours' travel over the frozen snows, they were revived by draughts of hot tea provided at the stations.

The ash of tea contains potash, soda, magnesia, phosphoric acid, chlorin, carbonic acid, iron, silica, and traces of manganese.

{ Water 74.00% Egg Whole { Nitrogenous matter 14.00% { Fat 10.50% { Inorganic matter 1.50%

PAVY.

Another analysis is that of Payen, the distinguished French chemist.

Water 74.4% Starch, sugar, pectose 21.2% Nitrogenous matter 1.7% Fat .1% Cellulose and epidermis 1.5% Inorganic matter 1.1% ------- Total 100.00%

Pohl found the proportion of starch, judging by specific gravity in different varieties, to be as follows: 16.38%, 17.11%, 18.43%, 18.95%, 20.45%, 21.32%, 24.14%.

DR. SMITH'S "Food."

Mattieu Williams.

From actual experiment.

From Mrs. Lincoln's "Boston Cook Book."

Pink sugar may be made by putting a few drops of carmine into a cup of powdered sugar, and sifting it several times until the carmine is entirely distributed through it.

Mrs. Richards.

A portion of the starch and sugar is consumed to feed the growing yeast. It has been estimated that about 1/7 of a barrel of flour is lost in raising bread--that is, that amount is consumed by the yeast used.

Oven thermometers may be obtained of Joseph Davis & Co., Fitzroy Works, London, S. E., England. 400° Fahr. is a good temperature for the first fifteen minutes. Some writers give 380°, but the higher temperature is better, provided it can be gradually decreased; it should not fall below 250° until the loaf is done.

There is, of course, an exception in the case of the use of milk for young children, it being a perfect food for them during the first year or year and a half of life.

In England it is the custom to serve eggs in the shell, and it is considered bad form to open them, but in America the latter way is general; for an invalid there is no question but that it is the most convenient way to do.

The spatters should be soaked in boiling water for a few minutes, and then in cold water, to prevent the sticking of the butter.

It should not be inferred from this that mother's milk is the best under all circumstances. It not infrequently happens that a mother, disregarding all indications to the contrary, will continue to nurse her baby after it has become disastrous both to herself and the infant to do so. If a baby remains puny, and the mother is exhausted and languid without any known cause, it is the part of wisdom to call in the aid of a physician, and have the milk analyzed. Good and careful feeding is infinitely better than nursing a baby upon impoverished milk, even if the quantity seems sufficient. A mother, in nursing her child, should do so at stated regular intervals. If it is injurious for a grown person to eat at odd times all day long, it is far more injurious for an infant. It will not hurt a child to be occasionally hungry, or even to cry, whereas it will hurt it seriously and perhaps induce life-long dyspepsia if food is introduced into the stomach while there yet remains in it that previously taken in an undigested, or partly digested, condition. The cry which a young mother thinks indicates hunger, and hopes to allay by feeding, is often only a dyspeptic pain, which is increased by the very means she takes to lessen it.

The milk of goats and asses is said to be more easily digested than cow's milk, but is procurable only in exceptional cases.

From Uffelmann's "Hygiene of the Child."

See chapter on Milk.

Vessels for holding milk may be made sterile by boiling them in water for fifteen minutes. Glass is best.