24 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



people " One of the best aliments, and the best appro- 

 priated to the different ages of life, is that which fruits afford. 

 They present to man a light nourishment, of easy digestion, 

 and produce a chyle admirably adapted to the functions 

 of the human body. * * * 



" There are fruits, which, when perfectly ripe, can be 

 eaten even to excess without inconvenience, such as 

 grapes, cherries, and currants ; the other kinds never oc- 

 casion ill consequences, if they are eaten only to satisfy the 

 demands of nature. * 



" Thoroughly ripe fruit, eaten with bread, is the most inno- 

 cent of aliments, and will even insure health and strength. 



" In traversing the territories of Germany, there is to 

 be seen near each habitation a vineyard or a garden of 

 fruit trees. The villages are surrounded with them, and 

 there are but few families who do not make use of fruits 

 during the summer, and preserve a certain quantity for 

 winter. The surplus is sold in the cities. There are to 

 be seen upon the Rhine, and other rivers of Germany, 

 boats laden with dried apples, pears, and plums." * * * 



The following, from the same writer, is from a passage to 

 be found in "Advice to People upon their Health," by Tissot. 



" There is a pernicious prejudice, with which all are 

 too generally imbued : it is that fruits are injurious in 

 the dysentery, and that they produce and increase it. 

 There is not, perhaps, a more false prejudice. 



" Bad fruits, and those which have been imperfectly ri- 

 pened, in unfavorable seasons, may occasion colics, and 

 sometimes diarrhoea, but never epidemic dysentery. 

 Ripe fruits of all kinds, especially in the summer, are the 

 true preservatives against this malady. The greatest in- 

 jury they can do, is in dissolving the humors, and particu- 

 larly the bile, of which they are the true solvents, and 

 occasion a diarrhoea. But even this diarrhoea is a protec- 

 tion against the dysentery. 



" Whenever the dysentery has prevailed, I have eaten 

 less animal food, and more fruit, and- have never had the 

 slightest attack. Several physicians ha.ve adopted the same 

 regimen. 



" I have seen eleven patients in the same house ; nine 

 were obedient to the directions given, and ate fruit ; they 

 recovered. The grandmother and a child she was most 

 partial to, died. She prescribed burnt wine, [burnt brandy 



