556 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
pie-men; there is as much difference between a piping-hot 
luscious Apple pie, fresh from the oven, and a cold edition of 
the same pie, as there is between wine, and vinegar. After 
Apple pie, the next favourite, especially at Christmas, is 
“Mince.” Peach, Pine-apple, Lemon Custard, and Cocoanut 
pies are in demand all the year round. This great Baking 
Company uses a hundred and ten thousand eggs daily. Huckle- 
berry, Cherry, Cranberry, Pumpkin, Strawberry, Plum, Goose- 
berry, Currant, and Blackberry pie are in great demand, each 
in its particular season. ‘‘ Meringue” is a cold-weather sort 
of pie, and only a moderate favourite then. The notion that 
pies properly baked are indigestible is treated by the manager 
as a delusion exploded long ago by medical authority. The 
late P. T. Barnum used to eat his three slices a day, and he lived 
to be eighty-two years of age, being a model of good nature, 
and shrewd amiability. “‘My observation is,’ says the 
Manager, “that persons who confine themselves to animal food 
are gross in structure, and intellect. There is no animalism 
in pie; and your reasonable pie-eater is a man of fine texture 
physically, and among the stars mentally.” Our English fruit 
pies are not correctly called “tarts” ; in the true tart the fruit 
(or jam) is put within a ring of baked dough, as evolved from 
the Roman twisted ring called “torte.” As long aga as in 
1863, The Lancet admonished the public concerning Meat pies, 
in words of warning which are just as necessary now as then for 
careful heed: “* All learned chemists, and toxicologists have to 
be reminded of the important fact that if a Meat pie is made 
without a hole in the top crust to let out certain noxious 
emanations from the meat during cooking, then colic, vomiting, 
diarrhoea, and other symptoms of poisoning, in more, or less 
degree, are likely to occur, particularly in pies made of beef, 
and rabbit. Herring pie was a favourite dish with our ances- 
tors; and from Great Yarmouth a hundred herrings are still 
sent once a year by the Burgesses to the Sheriff of Norwich to 
be made into twenty-four piesfor the King. 
PEACH. 
Tue Apple of Persia is our Peach (Amygdalus Persica), which 
grows on a tree whereof the young branches, leaves, and flowers 
possess more medicinal properties than the fruit. After being 
macerated in water they yield a volatile oil which is chemically 
