Vegetables:  Potatoes, turnips, parsnips, squashes, vegetable-marrows of all kinds, beets, common artichokes.

Liquids:  Beer, sparkling wine of all sorts and the sweet aerated drinks.

Medicines.  Codeine.—­A patient may begin with one-half grain three times a day, which may be gradually increased to six or eight grains in the twenty-four hours (under the doctor’s care); withdraw it gradually when sugar is absent or reduced as far as possible.

Diabetes Insipidus.—­A chronic affection characterized by the passage of large quantities of normal urine of low specific gravity.

Causes.—­It is most often found in young males and is probably of nervous origin.  It may follow excitement or brain injury.

Symptoms.—­The onset is usually gradual.  The urine is pale; ten to twenty quarts a day.  Thirst, dryness of the mouth and skin.  Appetite and general conditions are usually normal; sometimes there are feebleness and emaciation.  Death usually occurs from some other disease.

Treatment.—­There is no known cure.  Keep the general health in good condition according to the advice of your family physician.

Obesity.—­An excessive development of fat; it may be hereditary.  It occurs most frequently in women of middle age and in children.  Its chief cause is excessive eating and drinking, especially of the starch and sugar foods and malt liquors, and lack of exercise.  The increase of fat is in all the normal situations and the heart and liver are often large and fatty.  The condition in general may be good or there may be inactivity of the mind and body.  Disturbances of digestion and symptoms of a fatty heart.  There is less power to resist disease.  Death may occur from fatty infiltration of the heart, resulting in dilatation or rupture.

[Constitutional diseases 331]

Treatment.—­Must be in regulating the diet.  The person must avoid all excess in food and drink, and avoid especially foods that contain starch and sugar.  There must be regular and systematic exercise, hot baths and massages are helps.  Medicines made from the poke berry are much used and are successful in some cases.

Diet.—­The food of a fleshy person should be cut down gradually.  Its bulk can be great, but its nourishing properties should be small.  The diet for reduction of obesity should consist chiefly of bulky vegetables, but not too much of any one article or set of articles.  The following list is recommended by Dr. Hare of Philadelphia: 

For Breakfast.—­One or two cups of coffee or tea, without milk or sugar, but sweetened with a fraction of a grain of saccharin.  Three ounces of toasted or ordinary white bread or six ounces of brown bread; enough butter may be used to make the bread palatable, not more than one ounce.  Sliced raw tomatoes with vinegar, or cooked tomatoes without any sugar or fats.  This diet may be varied by the use of salted or fresh fish, either at breakfast or dinner.  This fish must not be rich like salmon or sword-fish, but rather like perch or other small fish.