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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



recommended for gouty people. Although I am now brought 

 to the medical aspect of the subject, it is not to be supposed 

 that I can personally speak with authority thereon. I 

 can only state facts such as have for generations come under 

 the observation of residents in cider-producing districts. 

 For instance, in Herefordshire no single case of true Asiatic 

 cholera has ever been known, whilst all medical men prac- 

 tising in the county — and I believe this holds good of other 

 cider counties as well — know that among the working classes, 

 whose habitual drink is cider and perry, diarrhoea and such-like 

 disorders are singularly rare. Stone also and gravel are almost 

 unknown in the county. A medical man attending the Hereford 

 Infirmary for many years informs me that during his experience 

 only two cases of stone had come under his notice, one being 

 that of a child. 



In Normandy, where cider constitutes the staple drink of the 

 lower classes, gout is said to be unknown save among the 

 wealthy, who indulge in wine. Gravel and stone in the bladder 

 are likewise very rare, and medical men are satisfied that the 

 immunity from both these forms of disease should be placed to 

 the credit of cider. Medical men, as reported to me by the 

 patients themselves or their friends, are largely recommending 

 cider as a remedy for and a preventive against gout and 

 rheumatism, and lately its action on the digestive organs was 

 the subject of a paper read before one of the Bordeaux Con- 

 gresses, by two French physicians, MM. Carrion and Cautru, 

 who say, as a result of their observations, that sparkling cider is 

 endowed with the property of prolonging the digestive process, 

 whilst at the same time it adds greatly to its intenseness. Cider, 

 moreover, they add, is essentially diuretic, and it also exercises a 

 favourable influence on nutrition. It would seem, therefore, says 

 the Lancet, that this old-fashioned beverage may with advantage 

 be recommended for use at meals to sufferers from that form of 

 dyspepsia in which the stomach evacuates its contents too 

 quickly, to the detriment of the thereby overworked intestines. 

 In addition to the good qualities already mentioned, well-made 

 cider is reputed to be an efficient corrective of the uric acid 

 diathesis. I believe this to be a scientific way of describing a 

 gouty tendency. 



A correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, signing himself 



