DESIRABLE CHARACTERS IN A VARIETY 185 



berries were supposed to cure all diseases of the heart, 

 because they were red and shaped like that organ. It 

 was believed that to dream of strawberries was an excel- 

 lent omen, especially to the young bachelor, as "such a 

 dream will insure him a wife who will not only be angelic 

 in temper, but also a prolific bearer of boys." 



As grown in North America, the strawberry was found 

 to have lost but little of this remarkable efficacy. In his 

 Young Gardener's Assistant, published in 1812, Thomas 

 Bridgman recommended them unreservedly to his fellow 

 sufferers: "Physicians concur in placing strawberries in 

 their small catalogue of pleasant remedies as having prop- 

 erties that render them, in most conditions of the animal 

 frame, positively salutary ; they dissolve the tartarous in- 

 crustations of the teeth ; they promote perspiration. Per- 

 sons affected with the gout have found relief from using 

 them very largely ; so have patients in case of the stone ; 

 and Hoffman states that he has known consumptive people 

 cured of them." Downing was able to subscribe to "the 

 oft-quoted instance of the great Linnaeus curing himself 

 of gout by partaking freely of strawberries, a proof of its 

 great wholesomeness." 



Value of the strawberry in the diet. — Modern strawberries 

 are sadly degenerate in curative properties. For the past 

 twenty-five years, at least, no severe cases of gout, gall- 

 stone, consumption, or passions of the heart have been 

 reported as cured by their use. In fact, there is a tendency 

 to ascribe evil to this fruit, rather than good. Because 

 there are more cases of insanity in early summer than at 

 other times of the year, some have concluded that straw- 

 berries are responsible for it. The press frequently contains 

 articles purporting to prove that the strawberry is the most 

 unwholesome of fruits, causing digestive disturbances, rashes 



