E.J.H. writes: - A friend of mine who is suffering from an attack of neuritis (not badly) is desirous of trying the diet of twice-baked standard bread as recommended by Dr Knaggs in an answer to a query in The Healthy Life some months since. She has asked me if Dr Knaggs would limit the quantity of this bread taken in the course of the day. If Dr Knaggs will very kindly tell me this I shall be greatly obliged.

Neuritis is a form of rheumatism or gout which involves the nerves. Its usual starting centre is the spine itself, from which all the nerves of the body spring. The diet needs to be greatly restricted so that the poisons can be eliminated. The most important foods to cut down are the cereals because they are very slow to digest and are apt to cause constipation with its attendant self-poisoning of the system with uric and other acids. Horses and animals suffer from neuritis from over-feeding with cereals and beans, and the stockbreeder or horse expert usually restricts these foods and gives plenty of grass, hay, chaff and green clover, which corrects the trouble.

The same thing applies equally to man. He should take his cereals in the form they are the most easily assimilated - namely, twice-baked or dextrinised. Thus "pulled" or twice-baked bread, Granose or Melarvi biscuits, or rusks, or toasted "Maltweat" bread are the best form of cereal for people suffering from neuritis. Other treatment besides diet restriction is, of course, needed to cure neuritis, because we have to clear the clogged tissues of the poisons which are interfering with right nerve action. Thus we can resort hot alkaline baths, Turkish baths, massage and Osteopathic stretching movements to help in this respect.

H. Valentine Knaggs.

There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and Philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one another. - Claude Bernard.