HISTORY 17 



offered by seedsmen, as that of an edible vegetable, 

 was by Gardener and Hipburn in 1818, and by Lan- 

 dreth in 1820. Buist's "Kitchen Gardener" says: "In 

 1828-9 it (the tomato) was almost detested and com- 

 monly considered poisonous. Ten years later every 

 variety of pill and panacea was 'extract of tomatoes,' 

 and now (1847) almost as much ground is devoted to 

 its culture as to the cabbage." In 1834 Professor 

 Dunglison, of the University of Virginia, said : "The 

 tomato may be looked upon as one of the most whole- 

 some and valuable esculents of the garden." 



Yet, though the fruit has always received similar 

 commendation from medical men, there has been con- 

 stant recurring superstition that it is unhealthy. Only 

 a few years ago there was in general circulation a 

 statement that an eminent physician had discovered 

 that eating tomatoes tended to develop cancer. This 

 has been definitely traced to the playful question, asked 

 as a joke by Dr. Dio Lewis, "Didn't you know that 

 eating bright red tomatoes caused cancer?" In more 

 recent years an equally unfounded claim has been 

 made that toma'to seeds were responsible for many 

 cases of appendicitis and that it was consequently 

 dangerous to eat the fruit. 



I give some quotations for tomatoes in Quincy Hall 

 Market, Boston, with some for other vegetables, for 

 comparison. The records show that during the week 

 ending July 22, 1835, tomatoes were quoted at 50 

 cents per dozen, cabbage at 50 cents per dozen. For 

 the week ending September 22, 1835, tomatoes were 

 quoted at 25 cents per peck, lima beans, 12}^ cents 

 per quart shelled, with comment that tomatoes are in 



