Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-04-19
farn'er's 9spartnlet1t
BENEFITS OF FRUIT AS A DIET
By. DR., A., P. wTI1B, OF CHESTER, S. 9.

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BY. DR.. P. wSL1E, OF CHESTER, S. Q.
In early life I contracted a passion for
the cultivation of fruit, which has been oc-
casionally source of pleasure and recrea-
ton to me ever since; but owing to an ar
duous profession, and residence on a
pipe.clay soil, the most unfavorable to the
cultivation of fruit; my opportunities for
indulging this taste have been quite limit
ed ----
As my profession is that of physician,
1 propose to say something in regard to the
propriety Of making fruit part of our daily
diet. A most pernicious prejudice prevails
with some persons that fruit is great cause
of sickness during our summer and autum-
nal months, when directly the reverse is
true, where good ripe fruit is taken with
any degree of moderation. 1t is true that
green, decayed, or badly matured fruit
sometimes causes diarrhea in children; or
that persons unaccustomedt to regular sup
ply, may, occasionally, when opportunity
occurs, surfeit their stomachs, causing there
by slight illess; but persons who have a
regular supply of good fruits, seldom de-
range their systems by it. Our ancestors
came from the north of Europe, where the
summers are comparatively short, and the
thermometer scarcely ever ranges above
the temperature of eighty degrees, they
brought with them the manners and GUS
toms adapted to that temperate climate
Now it is notorius that there is nothing a
people adhere to with greater tenacity than
their accustomed food and beverages. We,
to this day generally prefer bacon or other
fat meat as the chief articlesof diet, and
as beverage, whiskey or other strong
drink, caring not so much for culinary vege-
tables, and rarely making fruit necessary
part of our ordinary meals. We have con-
sequently suffered the penalty of our dis
obedience to the laws of climate, by short
lives, from fever and hillary diseases. The
French, Italians, and Spaniards, emigratiug
from warmer climate, where every meal
is composed chiefly of fruit and vegetables,
and their beverages the light wines Of their
native country, their defendants still ad-
here to the customs of their ancestors to q
considerable extent. Now, it is fact well
known to physicians, of the South, that the
French, Italian and Spanish families, suf-
fer much less from the malignant fevers
and hillary diseases, incident to our hot
summers, than the Scotch, English, Irish
and German. ..., ..
recollet we'll of hearing DR.. Dickson, Of
Charleston, dwell upon the comparative i'm
munity of the French and Spaniards,
from the yellow and other fevers about
Charleston, Mobile and New Orleans
Both theory and the practical observation
of the natives of different climes clearly
establish the truth, that the inhabitants of
warm countries, require diet almost eu-
tirely different from those of cold latitudes
The Greenlander can eat two pounds of ba-
con or train oil, and drink quart of whis-
ky daily with impunity whilst the natives
of the tropics subsist chiefly upon cooling
acid fruits peculiar to their climate. In
high ATTITUDES, fat oily diet is essentially
required, to supply the carbon necessary
to generate animal heat; but in our long
summers, where the temperature constant
ly approaches, and sometimes even rises a
bove that our bodies, we require but little
carbon to develope heat, and much e6oling
acid fruits. 1t is most worthy of remark,
in this place, that good ripe fruit contains
only from 10 to II per cent. of carbon
the great generator of animal heat, and
chief constituent of bile-whilst bacon or
oil contains &c to 80 per cent. Of that ma
terial. In the process of sailing and curing,
meat loses many Of its most important ele-
ments, necessary to the formation of heal
thy blood; consequently, it is found that
salt bacon, or other meat, and bred even,
with the addition of sugar and coffee, will
not sustain human life long, without the
addition of other ailments. This has been
thoroughly tested in the navy aud large
armies, where it was impracticabe to pro-
cure fruit, fresh meat, or vegetables; under
such circumstances, scurvy, disease of the
blood, invariably made its appearance, de-
flying all treatment, unless fresh fruit and
vegetables, necessary to the elaboration of
perfect blood can be obtained in sufficient
quantities, the disease soon disappears
1t is said that, in Europe, the lowest popu-
lation, whose diet consists of Irish potatoes
or oaten bread alone, which contain all the
elements of bloodin their proper proportion,
have most inferior physical organization j;
being hinge,jointed, pot bellied, and ex-
tremely ugly, with heads and faces like
some of our rice plantation negroes. A rea-
sonable deduction from what I have said
is this: If we wish our children to acquire
fine physical constitution, which appears
to be necessary to the best mental develop
mcnt, health, and greatest longevity, we
should, as one of the means to attain that
end, endeavor to supply them daily, partic-
ularly in the warm seasons, with good ripe
fruit, as a part of their ailment, for without
it we cannot expect perfect elaboration of
the blood-the great pabulum from which
all our organs and tissues are formed.
1t has been truly said, that 'no culture
of intellect that does not embrace the cul-
ture of health-no wealth, no morality, and
not even religion, that does not embrace
the preservation of the physical system from
all deterioration, and its cultivation to the
highest perfection, will ever last long. No
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