iNrBODUcTlolif. n 



healthful and delectable. Nature is a better chemist 

 than mac, and nature has packed within envelopES of vari- 

 ous forms and hues those exquisite acids and sweets, flavors 

 and essences, which in some subtle way sustain every por- 

 tion of the system from the hair of the head to the nails of 

 the fingers and feet. 



Let us take the apple, for instance, which in value ranks 

 among fruits equal to wheat among cereals. It contains 

 sugar, the malic and tannic acids, gluten, pectin, fibrin, 

 starch, traces of free salts and water. Bat little care the 

 tosy, round-cheeked children who live on apples almost en- 

 tirely from the time the August pippin turns yellow till 

 Christmas-tide; they only know that their favorite fruit, 

 vvith bread and butter and an occasional potato satisfies 

 every need. 



It appears in experiments with Alexis St. Martin, that 

 a ripe apple in a healthy'stomach ought to digest within 

 an hour and a half from the time it is eaten, and stone 

 fruits and berries in about the same length of time. In 

 cases of poor digestion fruit ought to be tfiken with bread, 

 not with vegetables or meats, or taken alone. Nor is fruit 

 healthful to such when smothered with sugar and 

 drenched in cream. It is only a perverted taste which 

 demands sugar to make palatable perfectly ripened fruits 

 and such a person knows nothing of the enjoyment to be 

 derived from unmixed natural flavors skillfully compound- 

 ed by the Great Chemist in nature's own laboratory. 



In respect to food values scientists rank grapes next to 

 apples. Schlickeyseu terilis one the king of fruits, the 

 other the queen; in that case the berriesmight be members 

 of the royal family, peaches, pears and plums, members 

 of the cabinet, and tropical fruits, the foreign ministers. 



