274 



STATE I'OMOLOGICAL SOCIETy. 



From this table it appears that an adult to enjoy good health, if he lived 

 upon fruits alone, must eat 37.7 pounds of apples, or 60 pounds of i)oars, or 

 30.7 i)ounds of peaches, etc. The numbers in the second column simply indi- 

 cate the amount that an adult must eat to acquire enougli carbon alone. 



Let us now glance, for the purpose of comparison, at the number of pounds 

 of any one of our standard articles of food that will sustain an adult for one 

 day in idleness. 



Food to Sustain Life One Day. 



These figures are only appro.ximate. Both fruit and foods proper vary con- 

 siderably in composition. It is not to be supposed tliat a person would attempt 

 to live upon fruits, to the exclusion of every otlier kind of food ; but tliese tables 

 are of iutarcst as showing how far fruits may replace other foods ; and simply 

 considering the great weight of fruit that must be eaten to acquire sufficient 

 nutriment, it will be seen that the replacing power of fruit is very small indeed. 



Fruits do nob rank high for repairing and building up the human body. 

 According to one of the best English authorities, an a^g weighing 794 grains, 

 and containing 77 grains of albuminous matter, is equivalent in nutritive power 

 to 17 ounces of cherries, 'Z'i ounces of grapes, 30 ounces of strawberries, 40 

 ounces of apples, and 4 pounds of red i)ears. 



In making this comparison, I am not attempting to disparage the value of 

 fruits in tlie liuman economy, but only to put them in their proper place. 

 They are chielly of value for the soothing inlluence of the pectin and gum they 

 contain, for the presence of free acids and alkaline salts, their aroma (to whicli 

 much of their refreshing quality is due), and the varying amount of soluble 

 matter present. Those fruits that seem to "'melt in the mouth" contain a 

 large amount of soluble matter. 



Ne.xt to those foods that are of direct use in nourishing the body, is probably 

 the place where fruits should stand; and although chemical analysis may show 

 that, as compared Avith other foods, they lack in richness, still their use is al- 

 most essential to i)erfect health. There are no foods, with possibly one or two 

 exceptions, that are alone fitted to sustain life. A person fed on starchy or 

 nitrogenous foods alone will certainly starve to death in time, or be attacked 

 with starvation diseases, of which the most loathsome is scurvy. Up to the 

 close of the 18th century more men perished in the navies of the world of 

 scurvy than by the cannon shot and sabre stroke of the enemy. On this sub- 

 ject a recent authority says : ** Sir Richard Hawkins, the great navigator of 

 the age of Elizabeth and her successor, said that in the course of twenty years 



