DIET. 237 
Again, for stewed Dates: ‘“‘ Break the Dates apart, and wash 
them first in cold water, then in hot water; drain them, and 
cover with cold water. Cook for a very few minutes until 
tender ; take out the fruit, add a little sugar to the water, and 
boil for five minutes; pour it over the Dates, and set them 
away to become cold.” Among fruits which serve to strengthen 
the sexual functions may be specially reckoned the Date. A 
lesson of interdependence as to the power of the small to assist 
the great is taught by a proverb, “ The Date-stone props up 
the water-jar.” Tafilat Dates, even when of excellent quality, 
soon become dry, and tough on exposure, after being pur- 
chased from the grocer; but their succulence and plumpness 
may be retained by putting them into a good-sized glass 
prune-bottle, with a screw metal top, sprinkling them freely 
therein with moist sugar, and a teaspoonful or two of water 
for moisture. 
DIET. 
> 
“°Tis the art of eating which makes for years,” says a sage 
proverb, and nothing can better promote this art for personal 
benefit than a sufficiently accurate knowledge of food elements, 
and their respective uses in the body. Broadly speaking, the 
sustenance on which we depend for the support of our lives 
comprehends animal and vegetable substances, besides our 
beverages. The more readily and thoroughly these substances 
are absorbed for supplying our physical needs, the better adapted 
are they for the purposes required. Residual matters are voided 
as excrementitious, the fact being, nevertheless, that the feces 
passed by stool consist not simply of the remains of unabsorbed 
foods, but also to a considerable extent of superfiuous digestive 
secretions, and the debris of intestinal linings) On a purely 
animal diet (of milk, eggs, and beef, or mutton) there is but 
little primary food-constituent (nitrogen) lost in the excrement ; 
but when vegetable foods are mainly taken (carrots, potatoes, 
peas, and the like) the waste of nitrogen is very considerable, 
amounting, as, for instance, in the case of carrots, to nearly 
40 per cent of the whole primary elements consumed. 
The foodstuffs, again, which provide bodily warmth, and 
serve to fatten, are termed by chemists carbohydrates, contain- 
ing twice as much hydrogen as oxygen; these include fruit- 
sugar, cane-sugar, milk-sugar, starch, and the same when made 
