148 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and so even drunkards, if fed on fruit, instinctively lose the craving for 

 drink. 



2. Saccharine Matters. — In fruits the saccharine matter is in the 

 form of grape sugar, or glucose, into which starch is converted by the 

 saliva and pancreatic and intestinal juices. 



The most important point about this class of nutrient elements is 

 that they do not pass into the excretion or put any strain on the 

 excretory organs, but are oxidised and pass into carbonic acid and 

 water as .their ultimate products, and are therefore great heat factors and 

 not exhausting elements of excretion. As they pass towards their final 

 goal they are transformed into lactic, acetic, butyric, and other acids ; and 

 these, when produced in the small intestines, are of the greatest value in 

 helping the change and absorption of proteids by increasing diffusibility 

 through the membranes into the lacteals. 



The amount of sugar in fruits varies very much, but it is always 

 considerable. The ratio of free acid to sugar varies enormously with 

 the season and cultivation, e.g. in 1847 the ratio of acid to sugar in 

 fresh grape juice was 1 to 12, in 1854 1 to 16, in 1848 1 to 24 

 in the same kind of grape. In plums it is about 1 to 1-63, in currants 

 1 to 3-00, in strawberries 1 to 4-37 ; but where the sugar is high the fruit 

 may not taste so sweet because, in some of the sweeter-tasting fruits, 

 although the proportion of acid to sugar is higher, yet the acid is covered 

 by the presence of much pectine, e.g. greengages, peaches. 



Cultivation, too, has a great deal to do with altering the ratio of acid 

 to sugar, e.g. in cooking apples the ratio is about 1 to 8, whereas in 

 dessert apples it is 1 to 12, and in the finest sweet sorts 1 to 22. In 

 fruits like the banana and breadfruit and sweet chestnut, filbert, and 

 pistachio there is a considerable amount of starch still untransformed 

 into sugar. 



Dried fruits contain so much less water that, weight for weight, their 

 sugar value is very high, e.g. dates and dried figs have 48 per cent.,, 

 raisins 56 per cent., while of the fresh fruits — 



Grapes contain 12 to 16 per cent. 



Cherries „ H „ 13 „ 



Apples , 6 „ 8 „ 



Pears „ 7 „ 8 „ 



Plums ,, 6 „ 



Red currants „ 4*75 „ 



Greengage „ 35 



Peach and apricot ,, 1*5 „ 



There is therefore no dispute that in the essential saccharine matters 

 fruits stand out as perfect foods. 



3. Oleaginous Matters.— I come to oils and fats I believe that 

 I am dealing with one of the greatest of all secrets of health, vitality, and 

 long life. I am satisfied from observation and experiment that fats are 

 the most important of all food elements. 



People unconsciously recognise this when they try to make boys 

 and oirls eat fat meat, but they forget instinct which rejects that form 

 of fat. 



