16 OHIO STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
There is much talk about the relation of diet to health that 
is equally foolish and hurtful. Foolish because it subserves no 
good purpose and hurtful because it tends to fortify the per- 
nicious idea that our bodies are in such wretched condition as to 
need constant tinkering, and that some sort of self-medication 
is a positive duty. In the place of this wide-spread delusion 
there should be an inbuilt conviction that there are various 
products known as foods, in the choice of which, and in the 
quantity used, each one has daily opportunity to exercise the 
virtues of common sense and moderation. 
One of the most pitiable errors with respect to certain food 
products is that which somehow confounds them with medicine. 
For example when one eats freely of fruits he does not feel justi- 
fied in simply saying he does so because he finds them agreeable, 
he likes and enjoys them, but is constrained to look wise, and 
solemnly observe that “fruits are very healthy.” Some even go 
so far as to have for each bodily ailment a different variety of 
fruit. Let us banish the idea of making a drug-store of our 
fruit gardens and orchards, and cease looking upon the family 
fruit dish as a sort of homeopathic pill-box. 
Foods are not medicines. A medicine is something which is 
taken into the body to produce a certain specific and unusual 
effect, the object being to counteract some injurious tendency, or 
correct some abnormal condition. If taken when not needed its 
effect is likely to be directly injurious. ; 
The normally healthy body demands what is wholesome, not 
what is medicinal. Anything that has real medicinal value is 
almost certain to be unwholesome as a general article of diet. 
We seldom or never acquire an abnormal taste or craving for 
what is wholesome, but an almost uncontrollable appetite may be 
developed for what, if properly used may be considered medicinal. 
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst” can be as truly 
said of our bodily wants as of our spiritual necessities. “Blessed,” 
because hunger and thirst are indicative of health, and when in 
health the plainest food tastes good and with it we can be “filled.” 
Nothing gives more genuine pleasure than wholesome food and 
good water to a hungry and thirsty man. 
Among the many kinds and classes of wholesome foods, few 
should rank higher in importance and value than the common 
fruits from orchards and gardens. In satisfying our natural 
appetite for fruit, fruit that is well matured, juicy, and fine- 
flavored, we probably reach the highest form of palate gratifica- 
tion with the least possible digestive effort. 
Our ordinary fruits contain eight distinct substances or com- 
pounds in greater or less proportions. These are, 
