ELMWOOD HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 295 



auts may be appetizing and very nice to the person brought up in 

 that way, but we find the fruits more to our liking. 



Fruits occupy a prominent place on all tables, and deservedly so, 

 not Avholly for the real nourishment in them, though they vary 

 much in this respect; some large, pulpy fruits, when well ripened, 

 contain sugar enough to make them moderately nourishing, some 

 contain oil, and some have a little nitrogenous material in them, but 

 the larger part of many fruits is water, most of them seventy-five to 

 eighty-hve per cent, water; but they contain some pleasant acids, 

 that are cooling and healthful, and some solid material, but the 

 latter in so small an amount that they would require to be eaten in 

 very large quantities to nourish the body. 



Fruits are grateful and healthful in the springtime to reduce the 

 the blood that has become overcharged by the rich and heavy diet of 

 the winter months. Here is their use, in my estimation, and to add 

 relish to other food. Bread eaten with some kind of fruit often 

 tastes better. To be used as a dessert, at the closing of a meal, 

 thereby diluting the heavier foods with a light and pleasant article, 

 more conduces to the health, especially in the summer season, and 

 prevents billiousuess. Bat he who would undertake severe labor, 

 either with hands or the brain, could not succeed on a diet of apples 

 and strawberries. Oranges and lemons make a grateful drink, but 

 he who would eat only oranges would not grow strong or fat. In 

 feeding the debilitated, whose vital powers may be low, we would 

 not depend on fruits, but we would use milk, beef tea, toast bread, 

 etc. Fruits may come in, sometimes, as a relish, but the vital powers 

 would surely fail on a diet of dried-apple tea and oranges. 



Fruits are sometimes used for their laxitive properties. Many 

 of them contain a great number of fine seeds which act as so many 

 foreign bodies, and have the desired effect, and sometimes these may 

 not be well borne in some irritable conditions. 



Some persons can scarcely eat fruit at all, as it seems to ferment, 

 and thus to cause heartburn, headache, diarrhoea, etc. I know those 

 who have to use fruit with much caution on this account, even an 

 apple or a few grapes giving them a miserable day. Such persons 

 can sometimes eat cooked fruits, as many kinds of fruits are made 

 more digestible by cooking, but I never heard of anyone trying it 

 on an orange. 



In conclusion, I may say, T believe in eating. Let each one eat 

 what he likes, if it agrees with him. There can be no cast-irop 

 rule. Your natural instincts will generally guide you, and even 

 when a patient asks me what he may eat, I ask him what he wants, 

 and we generally come to a satisfactory agreement. In the conva- 

 lescent there is wisdom in finding what the appetite craves, for there 

 is generally less danger from the quality of the diet thau froui the 

 quantity. When I was a young ])hysician I was exceedingly par- 

 ticular; I am duly cautious yet, but not so over-particular, as 1 once 

 was. 



