The aim of this work is purely practical. It aims at providing a complete and practical epitome for the dietetic student It is now many years since the late Sir Henry Thompson, a distinguished authority on dietetics, pointed out that no one can be a really accomplished practitioner who has not made dietetic principles and practice an important part of their professional education, yet the subject of dietetics has still no recognised place in medical teaching, and the facilities for the student acquiring a practical knowledge of it can hardly be described as adequate.

The first thing necessary for food and feeding in health and disease is to be well instructed in the elements of physiology, the nature of foods, the normal laws of feeding, as well as in the deviation by which the action of these laws is modified. To this must be added some practical acquaintance with kitchen usage and processes. A certain familiarity with the resources of the cook is essential to provide a suitable daily menu which will be agreeable to the invalid, and as much as possible varied within the narrow limits induced by the circumstances of each case. In the following pages an attempt is made to present this information concisely, and applied, so far as possible, to the everyday requirements of the medical practitioner.

In the preparation of the work I have derived much help (more especially with the data of the chemical composition of foods) from many sources, special mention being made of the writings of Atwater, Langworthy, and of the analytical reports published from the Lancet laboratory. The reader will observe that in the section on disease, less attention than is usual in works on diet is devoted to the details of the chemical composition and heat values of the food, and more to its influence on the digestive and bacterial processes in the gastrointestinal tract. This plan has been deliberately adopted as being in strict accordance with the general trend of recent advances in our knowledge of the physiology and pathology of digestion, and also more in harmony with the teaching of everyday clinical experience.

It is both a duty and a pleasure to me to express my very great indebtedness to my wife for invaluable assistance in this work. In my capacity as editor of The Encyclopaedia Medica, I received many requests from its readers for the republication of the article on invalid feeding, arranged for that work and written by her. This experience confirmed me in thinking that there is room for a work on dietetics which deals more fully with the practical aspects of the subject than other works with which I am familiar, and it is impossible for me to overestimate the assistance gained from her in my endeavour to supply this deficiency.

I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr Dingwall Fordycc for the section on infant feeding in health and disease. Keeping in view the practical nature of the work, I felt I could not do better than entrust this section to one of his recognised abilities, both in the scientific and practical aspects of this subject.

I have taken the opportunity of republishing in the form of an appendix the results of the experimental researches carried out by myself and others in collaboration, in the Physiological Laboratory of Edinburgh University since 1900.

It is hoped that the practical value of the book as a work of reference may be enhanced by the inclusion of an exhaustive index.

Preface To The Second Edition

As a medical text-book the present work is an acknowledged departure from long-established routine. In the section on Disease less attention than is usual in works on diet is devoted to the chemical composition of the heat values of food, and more to its influence on the digestive and bacterial processes in the digestive tract. This plan has been deliberately adopted as being in strict accordance with the general trend of recent advances in our knowledge of the physiology of digestion, and also more in harmony with the teaching of clinical experience. The very gratifying reception which the book has received may be taken as a proof of the soundness of this plan.

In the last year or two special attention has been directed to the important subject of the adulteration of some common foodstuffs, for example - bread. An account is here given of the present-day methods of the bleaching of flour, and of other methods, which, there is good reason to believe, impair the nutritive properties of some every-day foods.