Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-23
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From the Cincinnati Timesl
Mygiene-Fruiss and Acids in
aag4t DJIeL SSrrlnmer, q 'ssirfl sf
BY E. J. HOOPER, 30.

asAll people, whether savage or civil
lied, are in the habit, when they have
the power, of making use of vegetable
acids, which more or less abound in all
fruits and plants e These acids reIof
the most valuable service to the healthy,
condition of the human sy stem.a 1t does
not seem to follow from this that yipe7
gar, which is the effect of fermentation,
/ is so wholesome an acid as that which
exists as one of the constituents of all
fruits and vegetables. when personss
either from choice or necessity, abstain
from everything that is acidulous, what
is the effect2foNhy, more or less of the
scurvy, on rather dyspeptic arrangement,
which, to be cured. resortfmust be- had to
acidulous fruits. -,
.Acetic acid, or vinegar, will not have
this most desirable effect Of counteract-
ing scnrvy and other stomach evils. 1t
is highly to be recommended, then, that
we take, daily, apples or other fruits,
either fresh or dried, or have them can
ned. But, when we cannot have or pro-
cure these, vinegar in very moderate
quantities may, come into use, and be
beneficial. Vinegar, like alchohol,
comes also from the same element Sugar
and starch, and everything that contains
sugar and starch, will, by fermentation
called the vinous fermentation, produce
alcohol and by second or acetous fer
mentation the same material will pro-
duce vinegar. 1t is not an organized
element and not entirely harmless. It
cannot take the place of the organized
acids, except where these latter cannot
be obtained, and therefore cannot either
prevent or cure disease.
The liberal use of lemon juice or to-
matoes, or any other properly organized
acid fruits, will prevent the scurvy and
other complaints for an indefinite period,
but vinegar will not. The best vinegar,
however, in this country is from the
cider of apples. But there are animal
cules in cider which might produce dis
eases in the stomach. tits at least safest,
therefore, to depend for our necessary
acids on the fruits and vegetables which
are being, fortunately, more and more
cultivated, and which can now be pro-
cured from some distance from all quar-
ters of the compass, should they fail in
any particular district of the country.
Vinegar is apt to disturb the functions
of digestion, and we trust that young la
dies who are foolish enough to try to
make themselves thin and delicate, as
they would term it, by using much of it,
will take warning, and become wiser
when they learn how injurious it is
for
A late sensible writer on the subject
of acidulous fruits, DIR. Albert j. Bel
lows, in his work on " The Philosophy
of Eating says: "Now that fruits can
be so well kept by simply canning them
and excluding the air, and such abund-
ance, and such variety of fruits are
now produced, we can have, at an ex-
pense very trihing compared with their
value, all the acids the system requires,
at all times of the year, in form at the
same time agreeable and wholesome /;
and have, therefore, no necessity for
using acid in the form of vinegar, which
certainly has no advantage over fruits
and vegetables, and which has, to say
the least, some very suspicious charac-
teristics as sanitary agent. ~ u /
"The expense of one of the half dozen
barrels of -four which almost every fam
lily wastes in the year would do much to-
ward supplying the necessary acids Of
any family, if judiciously expended in
pleasant, sour apples or good, ripe toma.
toes, with cans or bottles to keep them in
and dried apples from carefully selected
fruit. Let every family have these
agreeable acids on their table every day
morning and noon, during the whole sea
son in which the summer fruits are alb
sent, and let every member, young and
old, eat all they will, and there would
be no necessity for vinegar, or any Other
Objectionable acid, which morbid ap
| petite only will crave" +
| Inquire into the habit of the schoo
| girls who flock to the grocers or cruet,
at every recess for lemons, picked limei
and cucumbers, and you shall find every
one of them living on fine -four, butter
sweet cakes and confectioneries, with ,
deficiency often of natural acids to elm
mate these carbonaceous principles from
the system; or if they do have any o
these acid fruits, they are taken with tn
last meal at night, when the powers o
digestion are exhausted, and not able t,
get from them their appropriate ele
ments; and taken then, perhaps, in tn
shape of some jelly, between two layer
of rich cake, the carbonaceous element
of which are more than sufficient t
counteract any benefits that might be de
rived from the acid. .s5esl ssll
Fruit, and in fact every other class o
food, is most unwholesome in the condi
ton in which it has the richest and mos
agreeable flavor. Fruits have the bes
flavor uncooked when they are in tn,
greatest perfection of kind, ripeness ant
freshness. There may be some excep
tions in which the osmazome is best de
veloped by cooking, of which, to ou
taste, the tomato is an example; but ap
T pies, peaches, pears, and almost all th'
fruits and berries, have the richest fla
vors developed by natures own culinary
process; and science has now developed
so many means of preserving fruits ant
and all other articles of food, that n,
good reason can be given why we may
not, at all times of the year, have con
slant supply of natural acids in varie
ty sufficient to satisfy the most fastidi
Gus tastes. We think that these canned
fruits and vegetables have done vas
good to the public health, and it is to b
hoped the time will come when all fruits
vegetables or meats preserved in vine
gar, salt, sugar, smoke or alcohol will b.
discarded as being unnatural and un
I
or luxuries of life, either imparting, a
they do, injurious elements, or chemi
cally changing or withdrawing the nu