INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

Wanganui Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15671, 23 November 1918, Page 8

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

INVALID RECIPES. Barley Water.-(l) Thin. Put a teaspoonful of prepared or pearl barley, previously washed in clean cold water, into a jug. pour on it half a pint of boiling water, and add a pinch of salt. Stand it by the fire for an hour and then strain through fine muslin. Similar thin cereal concoctions can be made from arrowroot, rice, or oatmeal. (2) Thick. Put a heaped tablespoonful of washed, prepared, or pear] barley into a clean saucepan, and add a quart of water and a pinch of salt. Boil slowly until it has evaporated down to about two-thirds of a quart; strain. It can be flavoured as desired. The addition of a little lemon peel while boiling is best. Beef-Tea.—Soak fib of finely shredded beef, from which all the fat has been removed, in a little cold water, warm or tepid (not hot), to which salt has been added in the proportion of a tcaspoonful of salt to a teacupful of water; pound the moat thoroughly; strain off the liquid thus obtained and add to it sufficient water to bring the solution up to half a pint; put the solution into a small, clean saucepan and raise; to the boiling point; remove any fat globules with a piece of blotting paper and servo. This is the quickest and best method for obtaining really nutritive beef-tea from fresh beef. An excellent kind of beef-tea. can also be made by adding half a pint of boiling water in which two teaspoonfuls of Liebig’s extract of meat are dissolved to the white of one egg well whipped up with a tcaspoonful of tepid water. Broths (Muttpn and Chicken). —Put 11b of minced mutton or chicken, freed from fat, into a jar along with a pint oj cold water ; stand the jar on ice for two or throe hours. Then cook the contents of the jar for three hours over a slow fire (allowing to simmer very gently, not boil) ; strain, cool, skim off fat, and servo cither hot or cold. Chicken Panada.—Cut up Jib of breast of chicken freed from fat and skin; put it in a cup with a teaspoonful of water and a pinch of salt and steam for an h.onr and a half. Then pound the meat, pass it through a sieve into a sbewpan, add one tablespoonful of cream, and heat thoroughly. May bo served hot on toast or cold as sandwiches. Coffee Jelly.—Soak \oz of gelatine in half a pint of water for one hour; add a breakfastcupful of hot, strong, clear coffee ; sweeten ; flavour with a tablespoonful of brandy; pour into a mould. Serve cold. Possesses nutrient and stimulating properties, and may be used iii cases of cardiac weakness. Egg Flip.—Whip the yolks of two eggs with tews of cinnamon water; add 4ozs brandy and \<n of sugar. This is really a medicinal preparation to be used as a stimulant in cases of great cardiac weakness. Dose, two or four tablespoonfuls. Egg-Nog.—Beat up the yolk of an egg with 6oz of milk and a dessertsj>oonfnl of sugar; add the beaten np white of the egg. Egg-Water.—Blend a pint of cold water with the whipped up whites of two to four eggs; flavour with salt or cinnamon. A good drink in febrile states. Gruels.—Rub np two teaspoonfnls of arrowroot of barley flour or rice flour with a little cold milk or water to a smooth paste and pour on it, while stirring; boil for three minutes. Re-boil if Sanatogen is added. ' Lemon Whey.—-Boil a pint of milk with two or three drops of lemon juice: strain through muslin and express all the fluid from the curd. To increase the strength of the whey, raw meat juice. Gamine Lefrancq, or eggs previously whipped with boiling water and strained may be added. When neither milk

nor whey can be tolerated, albuiactine must be tried. Macaroni. —Sufficient use is not made of macaroni in English invalid cookery. It is easily digested and absorbed, leaving very iittle residue in the intestines, and although it contains eight times less nitrogenous substance than meat, it enhances the nutritive value of beeftea, broths and soups, and makes a very nourishing pudding with eggs and milk For a cup of beefea or a plate of broth or soup put a tabiespoonfnl of one-inch length of macaroni into a pint of water just off the boil; flavour with salt and pepper; boil gently until the macaroni is just soft; strain in a colander. Have the beeftea or soun ready hot in a small saucepan, add the' strained macaroni, let simmer for five minuVs serve. Milk Jelly.—Dissolve one ounce of isinglass in a pint of milk; simmer for a few minutes, flavour with brandy, sweeten to taste; strain through a piece of fine muslin and pour into small moulds to set. The addition of a little cream makes it more nutritious. Savoury Custard.—Mix a cup of beeftea with a well-beaten egg; flavour with pepper and salt. Pour the mixture into a buttered cup or mould, and stand in a pan of boiling water till set. Mutton, chicken, and veal also make tasty custards. Soup, Vegetable.—Put half a pint of very finely chopped vegetables—carrots, turnips, cabbage, lettuce, celery, spinach, kale (no onions) —into a saucepan, with a quart of water and a little mint, parsley, and plenty of finelychopped herbs. Heat gradually to boiling point; let boil down to one pint, and pass through a hair sieve, taking care to press all the juice out of the vegetables. How and when this soup is to be used is mentioned in the text. Soups, Meat. For invalids meat soups, as distinguished from meat broths, should always contain plenty of the pressed juice of vegetables. They may be easily prepared by adding the vegetable soup of the preceding paragraph to beef tea or any simple meat broth. White Wine Whey.—To half a pint of milk, while boiling, add a wineglassful of sherry or white wine; strain through muslin, and sweeten to taste with pounded sugar. SIMPLE DIRECTIONS. HOW TO ACT. FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE. First tepid sponge face and then body, keeping body covered except part being sponged. Keep the bed linen as clean as possible, doors and windows open, but keep patient out of draught. Delirious Cases: Hot compress to feet; cold compress to head. Apply compress to feet first. Bleeding: Cold compress to back of neck, and raise patient’s head, not feet. Pneumonia: Hot compress on back between shoulders, which must be kept hot. FOR HELPERS, Keep smiling. Enquire how long patient has been ill. When enter room open window. Instruct people re cleanliness, bowels, etc. Take temperature, if possible; do not put thermometer into hot water, but use disinfectants. If temperature high, cough, and blood-stained mucus, report at once to doctor. Do not allow patient up until thermometer normal night and morning. Carry in your bag small bottle of disinfectant, e.g., Jeyes’, Condy’s, lysol, etc., for hands and thermometer (if able to take temperature), bottle of disinfectant tablets for throat, lemons and oranges if possible Recommend gruel, milk puddings, broth, jelly; no solid food; can have sips of cold water, lemon or orange drinks, or weak tea, milk and water, barley water. Any cases know nas alcoholic always pay particular attention to symptoms. If any inhalation chamber is near, use it. FOR PATIENTS. Bed at once. Windows wide open. If no help communicate with the Red Cross headquarters. Attend at once to bowels, castor oil at once, then salts, cascara, or other laxative if necessary after first day. Pood: Milk foods, barley water, lemon drinks, oranges, weak tea, gruel, raw eggs and milk (if you have no one to make any of these foods let committee know. Stay in bed until quite recovered from attack. Always enquire about food supply

of patients. Only medicines to prescribe are laxatives, i.e., castor.oil, at once, and if bowels do not move each day recommend salts, cascara, or pills. Only other medicine to prescribe is the Public Health influenza mixture, TREATING THE FLU. HEALTH DEPARTMENT’S INSTRUCTIONS. A list of instructions for the guidance of persons who are attacked by influenza, or who suspect that they have contracted the complaint, was drawn up on Friday by Dr J. P. Frengley, acting Chief Health Officer (Wellington) and Dr T. J. Hughes, District Health Officer (Wellington). The instructions are as follows: 1. Go to bed directly you feel symptoms like pain in the head and limbs, or a “cold.” 2. Go to bed in a room not occupied by a person who is well, and stay there until the temperature returns to normal. 3. On going to bed, take a drink of any kind as hot as possible, remove sheets, and lie between blankets. 4. Take light diet, such as milk, beef tea, soups, and gruel. 5. Don’t depress yourself- by looking at the bad side. 6. Remember the large majority of persons who take ill get well. 7. Only one member of the family of the house should visit the patient’s room. 8. Don’t allow people to come into your room and loiter there. 9. If no doctor has prescribed for you, take ammoniated quinine, in a half to a teaspoonful dose, in plenty of water, every four hours. 10. Add one teaspoonful of boric acid or borax, one tablespoonful of baking soda, and one teaspoonful of salt to a large tumblerful of hot water. Sniff up this solution as hot. as can be borne through the nose, then gargle the throat with the solution as hot as can be borne. Brush the teeth with the same solution, or with any antiseptic tooth paste. Do all these three times a day. 11. If you sneeze or cough, try to put your handkerchief before your nose or mouth. Remember, the minute droplets passing from you in sneezing or coughing carry the germs of infection to others. 12. Keep in bed until you feei you are quite able to get about; this will be when your temperature is down to normal. 13. Don’t go outdoors, except into direct sunshine, until the catarrh or “cold in the head/' if you have this symptom, is quite gone. SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE FUMIGATION. We have been asked to repeat for general information a simple and effective method of fumigation which has frequently been successfully used, and which is particularly suitable for using in private households. Take about half a shovelful of glowing wood embers (not coal), I lace in the middle of the room, and sprinkle three or four teaspoonsful of Kerol, Jeye’s Fluid, or other good disinfectant over the embers. Dense fumes will arise, filling the room, and penetrating all corners. Have all doors and windows stopped, so that every part of the room will be filled with the fumes. Stay in the room and inhale deeply for several minutes. Better still, sleep all night in the fumes. There is no danger of any kind, and no ill effects need be feared. The inhalation fumigates you iside and out, and tends to destroy any germs which may have lodged in the system. This should be done every day in every bedroom while the epidemic lasts. Living rooms should also be treated every day. Lesser-used rooms should be treated at least every two or three days. The treatment entails very little work, and the results are worth twice the trouble.

In addition, the throat and mouth should be gargled at least twice a day with a weak solution of disinfectant in water. Quite a weak solution will do. A threepenny box of formaline tablets is a good investment. Such one occasionally. A bottle of ammoniated quinine in the house, taking a couple or more doses daily, is also a good thing, acting both as a tonic and a preventive. ADVICE OP A DOCTOR. A Wellington doctor who has just recovered from an attack of influenza says the most important thing is to go to bed at the very onset of the .disease, and not to get up till at least 24 hours after all signs of temperature have disappeared. The first symptom is usually a tickling cough, with no feeling of illness, but after 24 hours there is a general feeling of lassitude and seediness; if the temperature is then taken it will be found to be above normal, and by that time the patient should be in bed, with the mind made up that he will remain there for at least a week if necessary. About the third day of illness, if the attack pursues its usual course, the patient feels better, and may want to get up and go about; it is

then that the greatest care must be taken that pneumonia does not set In, for as a rule the disease has not ended its course, and it will be several days longer before the patient should undertake evdn light duties. It Is wise for all to obtain thermometers, and get either a doctor or a nurse to teach the household how to use it. Temperatures should be taken morning, noon, and evening; if this is done feVver mistakes will be made.