PRESCRIPTION BOOK, DIET BOOK, AND DIET TABLE.

The spaces in the Prescription Book are to be filled up with the prescription at length, the times of administering the medicines, and the quantities to be given at each time. The diet of the patients will be divided into full, half, and low, to be designated in the Diet Book by the letters F., H., and L.; and in order that the steward may have precise instructions for delivering the hospital stores, &c., the surgeon will, from time to time, insert in the Diet Book written directions of the quantity of each article in his store-room, which he may think necessary to each degree of diet. To each ten patients, for example, on low diet, a certain quantity of tea, sugar, &c. To each ten on half diet, a certain quantity of rice, milk, &c. These proportions will soon become familiar to the steward, who has only to refer to the letters in the Diet Book to ascertain the whole quantity of any article to be delivered for the day, as well as the quantity for each ward. When any liquor is directed, or any other article not contained in these general instructions of the surgeon, the precise quantity directed for each patient will be noted in the Diet Book. The Diet Tables are to be filled up daily from the Diet Book, and hung up in each ward of a general hospital.