VEGETABLE FOOD. 293 



PEAS consumed while yet young without their pods form a 

 very delicate and nutritious vegetable if they are so young that their 

 skins crack in boiling and are quite tender. Unbroken skins become 

 harder the longer they are boiled and .are very indigestible. Old 

 peas should be treated as dried peas soaked, stewed and crushed 

 if they are to be rendered palatable and digestible. Dried peas, 

 split peas, without skins, if well boiled, are excellent food for 

 healthy persons. Peas-bannocks, or cakes made from the meal, are 

 a favorite food, with fat and milk, in the southeast of Scotland. 

 Peas with fat bacon or butter, have long been a favorite food. 



Nuts The walnut, hickory, pea-nut and pecan contain oil ; so 

 also does the hazel-nut, whether the variety be the filbert, cob-nut 

 or Barcelona-nut; the Brazil-nut is very rich in oil; the cocoanut 

 contains about 70 per cent, of a fixed fat, which is extracted and 

 used under the name of cocoanut oil or butter. All these nuts 

 are highly nutritious on account of the albumen and caseine they 

 contain, but they are not easily digested on account of the large 

 proportion of fat. They should be taken in extreme moderation at a 

 time when the stomach has had some rest and can employ its 

 powers for their digestion. They should be very thoroughly mas- 

 ticated so that the saliva may act freely throughout the mass; they 

 may then be taken by those whose digestion is good, but must be 

 avoided by invalids. Under exposure to the air the constituent oil 

 is liable to turn rancid. 



ALMONDS are of two kinds. The bitter almond contains ele- 

 ments which, when brought in contact with water, develops poison- 

 ous products, and consequently, when employed for flavoring pud- 

 dings, cakes and liqueurs, has proven injurious and even fatal. The 

 sweet almond is not injurious. On account of its irritating quali- 

 ties the iskin should be removed by soaking the almond in warm 

 water before the kernel is eaten; this may then be taken by those 

 whose digestion is good. If it be baked for a little while it may be 

 easily broken and pulverized and thus rendered more digestible. 

 Biscuits made of almond-flour have been found useful in diabetes 

 and in most cases of defective nutrition, on account of richness 

 in nitrogenous and fatty elements. 



Starch is also an important alimentary product, found very 

 extensively distributed in the vegetable kingdom. As an article of 

 diet it is useful in the formation of fat and force, but is devoid of 

 nitrogen. It allays the sense of emptiness and hunger when other 

 food cannot be taken. But the granules are covered with a hard 

 envelope which renders them difficult of digestion, unless the 

 envelope be burst by the action of heat. If they be eaten uncooked, 

 they pass through the canal without yielding up their nutritive 

 properties. If, however, they be boiled, the envelopes are ruptured 

 and the contents are easily transformed, either by the saliva or the 

 intestinal juices, into sugar and are thus easily assimilated through 

 the mucous membranes. All preparations of starch should there- 



