BROTHS FOR THE SICK

Beef-tea is tlie favourite form in which food is given to the sick in this country. When properly made it is undoubtedly a very good hut also a very tasteless thing to drink, and one is apt soon to tire of it. When the tongue is as dry as a piece of blanket, however, it matters not whether what is put into the mouth has a pleasant taste or not, for then all things taste pretty much alike. Still there are other stages of illness when it would be an advantage to give patients some kind of food, pleasant to the taste, as well as nutritive and wholesome. The formulas for such a preparation are very numerous, and Brillat Savarin's magisteres resto- ratifs are about as elaborate, and perhaps as good, as any, although I should not administer them to invalids with- out the doctor’s advice. The two restorative broths which I am about to describe are based upon the best formulas which exist for such things, and have been by repeated experiments and constant practice reduced to their present simple and economical form.

No. 1. Slice three onions, and dispose them in a saucepan so as to completely cover the bottom of it •, over them place a layer of fat bacon in slices a quarter of an inch thick ; over that put three carrots, also cut in shoes, so as to form another layer ; on this again put the follow- ing condiments judiciously proportioned — viz., salt, whole pepper, cloves, parsley, marjoram, and thyme. Upon this pile up two calves' feet, chopped in small pieces, and one pound of beefsteak, free from all fat and finely