REPORTS OP LOCAL SOCIETIES. 345 



forming food is of very little consequence. Thus, to obtain an amount of 

 albumen equivalent to the contents of one egg, we must eat more than a 

 pound of cherries, nearly a pound and a half of grapes, two pounds of 

 strawberries, more than two and a half pounds of apples, or four pounds 



of pears. 



Fresenius calculates that one pound of starch (which is equivalent to 

 about 5.5 pounds of potatoes) may be replaced by 5.4 pounds of grapes, 

 6.7 pounds of cherries or apples, 10.8 pounds of currants, or 12.3 pounds 

 of strawberries. The uses of fruits are, therefore, not so much for their 

 material nourishment as for their vegetable salts (which are of great ther- 

 aputic utility) and for their agreeable flavor. The different berries contain 

 as a general rule, a larger proportion of free acids than stone fruits or 

 applef or pears; and their acidity is the more demonstrated to the taste 

 from their containing relatively small quantities of gum and peptium. In 

 gooseberries we notice an agreeable proportion between the sugar and the 

 acids, the ratio being as six to one in the sweeter kinds and four to one 

 in the less sweet varieties. Currants are so exceedingly acid to the taste 

 that they are almost always eaten with sugar, the ratio of sugar to the acid 

 being about three to one. It is the aroma of the strawberry that we 

 chiefly prize. The ratio of the sugar to the acids varies in different varie- 

 ties and in difference of season from two to one to seven to one. The same 

 is also true of raspberries. Grapes exceed all other fruits in the amount 

 of sugar, the ratio being seldom less than twelve, and sometimes reaching 

 twenty-six per cent. There has been enough said upon these fruits to 

 suggest much as to other fruits, which an active mind will observe. 



Fruits directly aid in maintaining the essential equilibrium of heat in 

 the system. The malic acid of apples and kindred fruits, the tartaric acid 

 of grapes and berries, the citric acid of lemons, etc., consists largely of 

 oxygen, the element to combustion, so that when eaten in sufficient quan- 

 tity these fruits serve as the heat-producing element. Also, by the fluids 

 which they supply, they aid in carrying off, through the lungs, skin, and 

 kidneys, the waste of the system; a matter no less essential to life than 

 food itself. This water, of which fruit is largely composed, holds in 

 solution many of the organic salts of potash, soda, lime, etc., thus supply- 

 ing to the system the alkalies which, in the form they are afforded in 

 fruits, constitute a specific to scorbutic tendency. The malic or tartaric 

 acids afford also a needed laxative to persons predisposed to constipation, 

 while at the same time, as found in some fruits, they act as an astringent 

 to check any undue degree of looseness. 



But many fruits are highly nutritious, owing to the supply of gluten 

 they contain, and the readiness with which they are reduced to a pulp 

 renders them easy of digestion. This pulpy condition and consequent 

 ease of digestion is increased in some kinds of fruit, as the apple, by 

 roasting, since by this jjrocess the cells in which the acids are imprisoned 

 become broken, and this rupturing occasions a more perfect mingling of 

 the sugar and acids, rendering the texture more pleasing to the palate and 

 acceptable to the sensitive stomach. It has been said that "fruit is 

 golden in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night," yet there is so 

 much diversity in organs of digestion that I doubt if a rule like this can 

 be universal. However, for my own part, I enjoy good ripe fruit at any 

 time and can attribute no ill effects to eating it with ordinary discretion. 



More might be said on this very important subject, but I fear I have 



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