i6o MORE POT-POURRI 



livers are sluggish in action, these acids serving to elimi- 

 nate from the body noxious matters which, if retained, 

 would make the brain heavy and dull, or bring about 

 jaundice or skin eruptions, and other allied troubles. 

 Some such experience must have led to our custom of 

 taking Apple sauce with roast pork, rich goose, and like 

 dishes. The malic acid of ripe Apples, either raw or 

 cooked, will neutralise any excess of chalky matter en- 

 gendered by eating too much meat. It is also the fact 

 that such fresh fruit as the Apple, the Pear, the Plum, 

 when taken ripe and without sugar, diminish acidity in 

 the stomach, rather than provoke it. Their vegetable 

 salts and juices are converted into alkaline carbonates, 

 which tend to counteract acidity. A ripe, raw Apple is 

 one of the easiest vegetable substances for the stomach 

 to deal with, the whole process of its digestion being 

 completed in eighty -five minutes. Gerarde found that 

 the "pulpe of roasted Apples mixed in a wine quart of 

 faire water, and labored together until it comes to be as 

 Apples and ale — which we call lambes-wool — never fail- 

 eth in certain diseases of the raines, which myself hath 

 often proved, and gained thereby both crownes and 

 credit. The paring of an Apple cut somewhat thick, 

 and the inside whereof is laid to hot, burning, or run- 

 ning eyes at night, when the party goes to bed, and is 

 tied or bound to the same, doth help the trouble very 

 speedily, and contrary to expectations — an excellent 

 secret." ' 



Many people must have asked themselves how, in the 

 old days long ago, before the Potato came from America, 

 even the sparse population of Ireland fed itself. I feel 

 no doubt that the good monks who brought the art of 

 illuminating and of making the lovely old carved crosses, 

 also grew their vegetables, and did not find the climate 

 unfavourable. Probably, however, no other vegetable 



