The milder colds require no special dietetic treatment but it is advisable to adhere somewhat closely to the diet appropriate to mild fevers in general, bearing in mind the usual indication in persons of good circumstances, to secure a fast whenever possible. A good rule is to "starve a cold and feed a fever" - meaning by fever, typhoid or some similar infection of considerable duration.

Water and fruit beverages are especially indicated. At the inception of a cold, a hot bath, abstinence from food and the use of 2000 c.c. of very hot saline solution, lemonade, orangeade etc., in the course of two or three hours, will often abort the cold.

Hay Fever and Asthma are sometimes excited by some special article of diet, such as shell fish, toward which the patient manifests an idiosyncrasy. (See list under Erythema and Urticaria in next chapter p. 359,360.) Other cases, especially when hereditary, are due to the gouty or lithaemic state and require appropriate diet.

In Croup, and, to a less degree in other respiratory conditions, the use of nauseating expectorants often interferes with digestion or even with the retention of food on the stomach.

Any condition marked by excessive cough tends to produce gagging and vomiting. So, too, the mere presence of mucus may disgust the patient and interfere with nutrition. Individual tact and attention to aesthetics may ameliorate these interferences with nutrition.

The entrance of food into the respiratory passages may cause immediate asphyxia or some degree of local inflammation which is not usually noticeable unless as inspiration pneumonia. The principal conditions dangerous in these ways are: anaesthesia, paralysis due to central lesions as in bulbar paralysis, neuritis as after diphtheria etc., general paralysis of the insane, debility as in young infants, the aged, persons confined to bed after surgical operations, when drowning in the vomit may occur, paroxysmal cough, especially with marked inspiratory reflex, as in pertussis, greedy habits of eating and drinking.

In Tubercular and, to some degree in other forms of ulcerative laryngitis, nutrition is interfered with by painful deglutition so that painting or spraying with local anaesthetic solutions may be required preliminary to meals. If possible, this should be avoided by administering bland, soft diet, free from condiments. Gavage may be employed but is usually more distressing than voluntary swallowing.

Severe ulcerative lesions of the pharynx should be dieted as for diphtheria.

Pneumococcic disease has been discussed separately. About the same diet is indicated in other forms of acute pneumonia, bronchitis, pleurisy etc., bearing in mind that plastic exudates demand an abundance of water and salines whereas liquid exudates demand easily digested but comparatively solid food.'

Chronic bronchial and pneumonic conditions require diet corresponding to that for consumption or cardio-vascular disease, according to the nature of the case.

In pleurisy, hydro-, pyo-, and pneumothorax, vesicular emphysema and other conditions in which respiration is mechanically embarrassed, particular care should be taken to avoid over-distention of the stomach and bowels, either with liquid, solids or gas. Hence excessive ingestion, ingestion of effervescing drinks, and of readily fermentable foods should be avoided. The dietetic and medicinal attention to excessive germ activity in the alimentary canal is also important.

Pulmonary Oedema is often a terminal process or, if not, so acute in its manifestations as rather to preclude the attempt at feeding. Hot saline injections into the bowel are indicated. If nutrition is necessary and feasible, hot, easily digested food should be used, as the proprietary milk foods, beef extracts, predigested milk, poached eggs on toast with paw paw extract as a digestant, egg nog made with predigested milk. As this condition is essentially a secondary process, due to renal and cardiac failure, it is to some degree preventable by appropriate diet as considered under such headings.

Pulmonary Haemorrhage should be treated on the same general lines as gastric haemorrhages except that food and drink are not locally dangerous. Tea and coffee, very hot drinks, alcoholics etc., are contraindicated by their influence on circulation. The diet should be plain and easily digested, predigested if necessary, and the greatest pains should be taken to avoid overdisten-tion of the stomach. Hence, feeding need be interrupted only during the period of active bleeding and the diet should then be that appropriate for convalescence from gastric ulcer.