552 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 94. 



state. If taken when not needed, its effect 

 is likely to be directly injurious. In order 

 to maintain strength and vigor, and repair 

 waste, the normally healthy body craves 

 what is wholesome, not what is medicinal. 

 When a thing has real medicinal value, it 

 is almost certain to be unwholsome as a 

 general article of diet. There is an old tra- 

 dition, even now quite generally believed, 

 although gradually fading away, that 

 anything that affords us simple physical 

 pleasure is dangerous, if not absolutely 

 sinful. 



So when one eats freely of fruits he does 

 not feel justified in simply saying he does 

 so because he finds them agreeable; he likes 

 and craves them, but is constrained to look 

 wise and solemnly observe that ' fruits are 

 very healthy.' Some even go so far as the 

 German prince, and have for each bodily 

 ailment a different variety of fruit. The 

 prince said, " Whenever I meet with any 

 misfortune or affliction, and am disposed to 

 give way to my grief, I order a young goose 

 nicely roasted, and eat as much thereof as 

 I can ; I always find that I rise from the 

 table far less unhappy." Let us banish the 

 idea of making a drug store of our fruit-gar- 

 dens and orchards, and cease looking upon 

 the family fruit basket as a sort of homoeo- 

 pathic pill box! 



" Blessed are they that hunger and 

 thirst," can be said as truly of our bodily 

 wants as of our spiritual necessities ; not 

 blessed because they shall be medicated, 

 but because ''they shall be filled," with 

 what tastes good, with what gives genuine 

 and lasting pleasure. 



In satisfying our hunger for fruit, fruit 

 that is well matured, juicy and fine flavored, 

 we get perhaps the highest form of palate 

 gratification with the least possible diges- 

 tive effort. 



Our ordinary fruits contain bhe following 

 substances in greater or less proportions : 



1. A large percentage oi water. 



2. Sugar, in the form of grape and fruit 

 sugar. 



3. Free organic acids, varying slightly ac- 

 cording to the kind of fruit. For example, 

 the predominating acid is malic in the ap- 

 ple, tartaric in the grape, citric in the 

 lemon. 



4. Protein or albuminoids, substances con- 

 taining nitrogen, which resemble the white 

 of eggs, and are its equivalent in food value. 



5. Pectose, the substance which gives firm- 

 ness to fruit, and which upon boiling yields 

 various fruit jellies. 



6. Celluluse or vegetable fibre, the material 

 that forms the cell walls, and which is found 

 in all parts of plants. 



7. A very small percentage of ash or 

 mineral salts. 



The substances named above are, with 

 the exception of cellulose, essential constitu- 

 ents of a perfect diet. The percentages of 

 the different nutrients are so small, however, 

 that most of our fruit has little actual food 

 value. For example, the nutrients con- 

 tained in the strawberry, according to 

 analysis made at the Ohio State University, 

 are as follows : 



Carbohydrates 8.0 per cent. 



Protein 3 " " 



Fat " " 



It has been estimated that the minimum 

 daily ration of nutrients for a man of aver- 

 age weight, in performing an ordinary day's 

 work, is : 



Carbohydrates 500 grams, or 17.6 ounces. 



Protein 118 " " 4.2 " 



Fat 36 " " 2.0 " 



A simple calculation will show that a 

 person would have to consume about 200 

 ounces, or 13 pounds, of strawberries daily 

 in order to obtain the proper amount of 

 carbohydrates from this source. 



In order to secure the necessary amount 

 of protein from the same source, a daily 

 consumption of 1,400 ounces, or 88 pounds, 

 of strawberries would be required. 



