Biscuits And Water

Sources: Papers On Health

The biscuits referred to are manufactured in

Saltcoats.[A] They are made from the purest whole wheaten flour. The

late Mr. Bryden, of the Saltcoats Home, used them along with hot water

as sole diet in many serious digestive troubles, with marvellous

success. Where no food will lie on the stomach, one small, or half a

large, biscuit is to be taken three times a day, as a meal, and at

meal-times. This will prove amply su ficient to maintain the system in

such a case, until the stomach gains power for more. In the case of

SORES and ABSCESSES (see), such a diet of biscuits and water provides

pure blood, and makes healing by other treatment very much easier. We

have known limbs saved from amputation largely by such diet. It will

suit equally well the delicate young lady and the strong labourer. Too

much of ordinary food goes to increase ulceration and nourish disease.

The Saltcoats biscuit provides nothing for these ends, and is of

immense value as an aid to cure. One great advantage of this diet is

that it is a dry one, and the biscuits must be thoroughly chewed to

enable them to be swallowed at all. The saliva is thereby thoroughly

mixed with the food, which is all-important to make it digestible.

These biscuits are also so plain as not to tempt the patient to eat

more than he can digest, which is the great danger in sickness. The

slops of gruel and cornflour so often given are never chewed at all,

and often do nothing but harm. Such starchy foods really require to be

more thoroughly mixed with saliva than any other food, as unless, by

action of the saliva, the starch is converted into sugar it cannot be

assimilated in the stomach.



[Footnote A: By Mr. R. Black, baker.]