The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-07-22
FRUITS AS FOOD AND AS MEDICINE.

fruits; many considering them useless as III article
nl food, and injurious to health. Let rs examine
eoInc Of The facts in the case:-
Isl. fruits As FOop What is food: and what
II uses: Food may be defined TO be anything that
supplies any ofthe constituents parts the body.
70 what is food, therefore requires To see what
those parts are made Of
Except q few simple minerals, a lime which
the solid parts OF all bones. four simple sub.
s.mce--,arbon, oxygen hydrogen and nitrogen
e,ml'o>e tn, entire structures of all animal sub
-'ance>. " resrr to have +" 'l>a such hard words
yNpre,- th n.un,, of about all the primary mater
.,l, which compose tr ,,h hole animal and vegetable
kingdoms,
IL may be stated in round numbers thai all soft
.Hnal bodies rom an egg 10 human flesh and brain
re composed ot carbon J6. oxygen - hydrogen :,
nitrogen 10 parts, in hundred. SO that anything
which contains any or All of those substances, in a
i1rm TO be made up into those bodies. i, food OF
me r>t three, starch is the great source; for from
whatever thing starch is extracted-wheat pota-
l0es, rice apples-sill The thousand things that
Ian tit is composed in round numbers, OF car
t0n ~. oxygen 40, and hydrogen parts, iii the
hundred. This is the that the cereal grains.
.toe- and turnlp> Why peas beans, &C.; al stand
o high as food, being rich in starch this itself
l.hing more than three 1ourth- OF all The animal
5truetures. Most Of The fruits also contain large
element Of starch ana are therefore 10 that extent
Iaod.
For The ,nlnc reason sugar. from hatever source
del-YeJ--from milk. the cane. the beet, the maple,
bonev Ac. i food in 4 high degree this being COM
u4s=l of carbon 81, oxygen 56, hydrogen parts, in
hundred; sugar having very nearly the compost
t.on of starch, comparison Of the figures will
dow. Hence all the long line of fruits, most Of
being rich i'll sugar, that extent also furnish
The elements tliat compose and nOuriSh the body
il food. And il is worth remembering that these
elements much more nouri,hinS--that *, they
AZ lnttC in composition like the animal parts
Ihey 20 TO form, III the stale oi starch and sugar,
thun when by fermentation and distillaion they
have passed into other forms, as they readily do
under the names Of cider, beer, alcohol &C.: some
o tie starch and sugar elements, in that change be-
.olning water; while none OF them are assimil3-
tie as in their natural state. Fruits therefore, cat
fruits, and not secondary things arising
from Them, afford by far the most nutriment The
.ane is true in the fodder of brute animals Grass
hay corn-staks, &C., owe their value food large
lY 10 their starch and sugar. which are mostly lost
ii allowed TO sour or 10 get oyer-ripe; for both the
.ourng and the rpening process converts the starch
and the sugar into other, and far less nutrive sub
,tances.
FRUITS Ae MEDICISE Rightly used, no one
thing under the sun will prevent and cure more
diseases than fruits. And as i'll brief article the
whole catalogue Of complaints cannot be consider
3D. let us turn 10 one two fit examples
J&undice, liver, bilious complaints these only
iiderent names for essentially the same thing And
something OF their nature must be understood 10
ste how fruits operate medicine.
Food serves two useful purposes to the animal :;
me, Is already shown. 10 form the material which
make up he body; the other 10 furnish the fuel that
warns ii. The lungs-the breathing apparatus
VI every animal i furnace. Portions of the food
the carb0n-not needed to make the structures of
tic body carried by the blood into the furnace
- men carry the wood and coal into that Of the
building. And as in this latter the oxygen OF the
All must enter the register 10 effect any burning so
il must go through the mouth snd nostrls into the
animal furnace TO burn the fuel there And mark
dis that Ill proportion to the amount of the oxygen
admitted Will be the amount Of fuel consumed and
1t heat produced. Iii cold weather, the air being
more solid, The furnace will receive, say, twice as
much oxygen as when it is rarehed by the heat of
summer. In this latter condition, the fuel often
only shoulders away, checking up the furnace or
refusing to burn altogeherall for the want Of this
oxygen.
Now this is exactly the nature and cause OF liver
complaints. In cold weather you never have them :;
because the greater oxygen Of wintry air burns up
clean the fuel OF the body. But as spring and sum-
mer advance, the oxygen diminishes, the fuel-the
caroon-ls not burnt up properly, accumulates in
The system, especially in that great receptacle of
biood--the liver causing 1t to swell and be infiam-
ed OF, more frequently nature seeks to dispose of
tAose surplus things by working them up into bile
or gall, which, unable, all Of it, to find its way out
through the natural channels, mingles with the
blood turns yellow the ewes and the surface, and
makes You wonder what this eonfounded aun,lice
means"
II now the want OF oxygen, falling TO burn up the
fuel materials as we have seen. is the great cause
Of liver complaints"--of which there can be no
,soub--the true remedy is to supply more of it and
as We cannot change the condition of the air so as
10 put more oxygen into the furnace, our only way
IS 10 put it into the system through other channels
the stomach. And nowhere can we find it in Il
hioiS anu Plould)t sUdpt lnaU III the Va
lious acid fruts-all their sourness as Of most
everything else, owing itself TO this very oxygen ;
TOR the word itself means .sour.n
For the cure of liver complaints then under their
various phases and names, the most natural and
proper remedy-better than several apothecary
shops-is the various acid vegetables and fruits,
known by their acid qualities to contain large
amount Of oxygen all the long line from the pie
apples u The la,larnds. oranges and lines OF the
tropics
This IS mol theory merely for we can show many
persons who formerly as spring advanced each
year had to 90 through course ofblue pill bltters
and the drugging usual for bilious complaints but
who have none Of those troubles under the fruit
treatment. We nave at present several eases OF the
.ort-some Of them children-who are making good
progress on oranges, lemons apples and cider. For
At The risk CT being thought heterodoX in temper
ance, we think that in the aundlce form of liver all
ments there is nothing so beneficial as cider espe.
cialy that complaint occurs mostly in the spring
when solid fruit is scarce. If we had the gift of
roesy our harp should first sing the praise of cider
IS a medicine. And wisely, we think, did the last
temperance law exempt it from the ban
Wien from causes already stated, gall too large
10 quantity OF lad in quality has formed and seeks
TO escape by the natural channels bowel complaints
aS cholera morbus, bilious dlarrhma and dvsentery
arise in consequence Hence f-its h,, ,s;,,.r ,> ~ =