FRUIT AS A FOOD AND MEDICINE. 681 



known as scurvy, the whole medical profession look upon fruit 

 and fresh vegetables as the one and only known remedy. I be- 

 lieve the day will come when science will use it very much mere 

 largely than it does now in the treatment of many of the every- 

 day ailments. I have shown how it aids digestion. Observations 

 in scurvy prove that it exerts a very powerful influence on the 

 blood. But " the blood is the life " : poor blood means poor 

 spirits, poor strength, poor breath, and poor circulation. Impure 

 blood means gout, rheumatism, skin diseases, rickets, and other 

 troubles. As it is proved that fruit will purify and improve the 

 quality of the blood, it must follow that fruit is both food and 

 medicine combined. In fevers I use grapes and strawberries, 

 giving them to my patients in small but frequent doses oranges 

 and baked apples, if the others are not obtainable. For rheuma- 

 tism, plenty of lemons are invaluable. White girls with miser- 

 able, pallid complexions want a quart of strawberries a day ; 

 where these are not obtainable, bananas, which contain much 

 iron, are a good substitute. Probably, of all fruits, the apple 

 stands unrivaled for general purposes in the household ; either 

 raw or cooked it can be taken by nearly everybody, and it con- 

 tains similar properties to the other more delicate fruits. To my 

 mind the pear is more easily digested than the apple, and for 

 eating uncooked is superior to it. In our climate we can have 

 good dessert pears nine months in the year, and their culture 

 should be much increased. 



Dried fruits are now occupying more attention than perhaps 

 they have ever done before. It has been proved in a large way 

 by giving troops dried vegetables and fruits that the attack of 

 scurvy could be warded off, but in curing scurvy they were no- 

 where alongside green. Still it teaches us that dried fruits should 

 be used when green can not be obtained. If soaked for a few 

 hours before cooking they make a capital substitute for fresh 

 fruit, and they come cheaper to the consumer. I wonder that 

 miners, sailors, and others do not use dried fruits very largely. 



For preserving fruit I look upon bottling in glass bottles as 

 the coming thing. Not by the use of chemicals, such as salicylic 

 and boracic acids, and the various preservatives made from them, 

 but simply by protecting it after cooking from the fermentative 

 germs in the atmosphere. It keeps for years, turns out even 

 more palatable than green fruit, is equally digestible, and con- 

 tains all the virtues of freshly cooked fruit. When bottles are 

 made in Australia at a cheap rate this will be a great industry. 

 Canned fruit is not so good ; the acid of the fruit dissolves up tin 

 and lead from the tin, and I have seen very serious cases of illness 

 as a result. Besides, fruit should be sold much cheaper in bottles 

 than in tins, as the bottle can be returned and used again. 



