The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-10-17
Tomatoes as q Food.

Tomatoes contain neither cancers nor
cancer producing matter. Cancers are
composed of animal matter; not vege-
table, and therefore cannot be directly
derived from the vegetable kingdom.
Tomatoes are not without some defects as
an article of food. They are not, like
milk, a perfect diet of themselves, and
besides, like most other articles of food,
they contain some obnoxious qualities
But they need not be thrown aside on
that account. Nature has provided us
with such sufficient excretory organs that
obnoxious matter in our food, if in mod
crate amount, is readily cast out, and the
body is protected against any material
injury. Were it not SO, we should be
obliged to throw out of our dietary many
kinds OF food now eaten, not only with
impunity but with advantage Thus,
red cabbage, cherries and peaches con-
tain prussic acid, which is a deadly
poison when taken in sufficient quantity
The very small amount of the poisoning
acid these vegetables contain is cast out
of the system without any material injury
to the person using them. A positive
good may actually be derived from the
use of food containing some such foreign
matter, by way of giving increased
activity and strength to the excretory
organs is necessary to protectus against
the pernlcious effects which might other
wise occur. Almost every kind of grain
and fruit in use contain more or less
things, which in larger amount would
prove hurtful. Unless we closely study
our food, we are taking them when we
little suspect it. A Frenchman, not many
years ago, discovered substance in wheat
bran, under which the high heat used in
baking, dissolved out and spread over
the crumbs of bread, of which bran forms
a part, and discolored it, and hence the
brown stain peculiar to graham bread.
But from this discovery such bread has
not been rejected, but continues to be
accounted among the most wholesome
kinds of food. Rye is seldom used with
out containing more or less ergot, but
rye bread is reckoned among the most
healthful. Tea contains tannic acid,
apples contain mallic acid, lemon and
oranges citric acid, no one of which is
used either in nutrition OF respiration,
but they only become Objectionable when
used excessively.
Tomatoes, in common with most other
fruits, contain more poisonous matter.
They and the eggplant, Jerusalem
cherry, bitter-sweet, deadly nightshade
and the common potato plant, all belong
to the same solanum-the fruit
of every species of which is more or less
poisonous, but none of them very much
SO. The fruit of the deadly nightshade
and of the potato (potato balls) are prob
ably the most poisonous. But even
these are not very hurtful. The smaller
amount contained in tomatoes allows of
their being classed with the esculent
fruits, but there is nevertheless enough
to give them a peculiar flavor not apt to
be relished by unaccustomed palates,
but which use soon renders agreeable.
Used very largely, tomatoes would
doubtless develop specific results pecu-
liar to the fruit of the genus to which
they belong, especially when feeble per-
sons and those who, from their peculiar
constitutions, are susceptible to such in
fuences. But when moderately used by
persons in fair health there is no reason
for rejecting them than there would be in
ejecting lettuce for the opium it con-
tains.
Ple-plant stands in similar relations.
Its prominent characteristics are the re-
suit of oxalic acid, which is powerful
poison. For persons not having suffi
cient vigor to dispose of such strong
acid, and for those in whose systems
there is already an excess of acid, such
highly acid food would be Objectionable.
But its moderate use by people in COM
mon health is more Objectionable than
any other acids in daily use and regard
ed as healthful.-L. B. Arnold in New
York Tribune.