STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 137 



for the eating of fruit at the commencement of the meal. He says : 

 ''The eating of fruit at the commencement of a meal, while it pre- 

 sents a bland or congenial material to the delicate lining of the 

 membrane of the alimentary organs, forming a welcome precursor 

 to the more substantial articles, many of which require protracted 

 energy for their elaboration into nutriment, at the same time is, to 

 some extent, a safeguard against the overfeeding which comes from 

 reserving the fruits till the stomach is already overloaded with 

 ■enough, perhaps too much, of other food. Fruits should be ripe 

 when eaten on an empty stomach, and for their laxative effect 

 should be eaten before anything else. In this way constipation 

 may, with many individuals, be obviated, especially when the 

 quantity of other articles of the meal is within reasonable limits." 



Constipation is the foundation of many diseases, and the cause of 

 lassitude that depletes working force. This difficulty, Dr. Seeger 

 says, can be removed by attention to the diet. Fruit he highly 

 recommends as a superior regulator, and, in addition, ''benefit will 

 be derived from the use of corn bread, cracked wheat, oatmeal, 

 bread of unbolted flour, and such vegetables as green corn, tomatoes, 

 and celery." Biliousness will also yield to careful habits of diet. 

 Dr. Seeger sa3'S : 



"If our bilious friends would throw aside their liver pills and 

 study nature while she is in her most smiling and bounteous mood, 

 would allow her to tempt them as Eve tempted old Adam, they 

 would take to fruit, and, by pleasant, natural and healthful methods, 

 free themselves of the 'thick, bilious impurities' which make them a 

 nuisance to themselves as well as to all around them. Biliousness 

 is one of those demons that can be pretty well exorcised by proper 

 diet and due amount of exercise. A gentle diarrhea, brought on 

 by eating ripe fruit in summer, has frequently a salutary ^ffect. 

 Acid and astringent fruit, being rather a medicine than food, is less 

 hurtful to the healthy and to children than is commonlj^ imagined. 

 Instead of being noxious, as some imagine, in inflammatory dis- 

 orders, it is of the greatest service. Persons of a thick and languid 

 blood cannot eat anything more conducive to health than fruit, as it 

 possesses the property of attenuating and putting such blood in 

 motion." 



The diet is the source of health and disease, and while it is in the 

 power of every housewife to seleci what shall determine the health 

 of the family, it is a subject that receives less study and attention 



