210 OUR COMMON EEUITS. 



it reigns almost unrivalled ; its hardihood being so great 

 as to brave even Arctic temperature, and furnish a rosy 

 fragrant dessert even amid the snows of Lapland the 

 chief fructal blessing left in Nature's cornucopia when 

 nearly all the rest have dropped out of it as she has passed 

 on her way to the barren Pole. They are much eaten 

 there fresh, as a part of the frugal fare of the inhabit- 

 ants, and enter also into the composition of " Kap- 

 patialmas," formed of fruit and reindeer cream, mixed 

 together and dried like a sort of sausage, which as the na- 

 tional dainty may be called the plum pudding of the Polar 

 regions. 



If strawberries be laid in a heap and left to themselves, 

 it is found that they decompose and pass through the 

 various stages of decay without undergoing the acetous 

 fermentation, nor can their kindly temperament be soured 

 even by exposure to the more powerful action of the 

 stomach, where, being composed almost entirely of pecu- 

 liarly soluble matter, they dissolve, and " leave not a 

 wreck behind" to cause internal commotion or hinder 

 digestion. There are few conditions, therefore, of the 

 human frame in which they are not positively salutary, 

 fewer still in which they can possibly produce any evil 

 eifect. They promote perspiration and temper hot blood 

 in the healthy, and offer such advantages to the diseased 

 that it is almost wonderful there has been no system of 

 Eragariopathy yet established, or that they should not at 

 least have had such a " tide in their affairs" as bore nau- 

 seous brandy and salt, or yet viler tar-water, on the flood 

 of public favour for a time, as universally-tried specifics. 

 Taken internally, they relieve the agonies of gout, and 

 prevent it also, for Linnaeus kept himself almost free from 

 his " old enemy" by always eating plentifully of this fruit 

 whenever it was in season. Erom their action on calca- 

 reous secretions, they are likewise beneficial to patients 

 suffering from stone ; and finally, Abercrombie bears wit- 

 ness that " Hoffman has known consumptive people cured 

 by them," and assuredly the process must have been 

 vastly pleasanter than a course of cod-liver oil. Nor are 

 they less potent as a cosmetic than as a medicine, for it 



