The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-07-12
The Tomato as n Dietary.

The profession and the public, says
the Australian Medical Journal, are BY
no means agreed as to the dietetic value
of the tomato. The classical authorities
on food, such as Pavy and Chambers,
dismiss the claims of this vegetable very
curtly, simply placing 1t among the anti
scorbutics, and allowing it little, If any,
nutritive power. The public, on the
other hand, believe this ally Of the po-
tato to be- not only q highly nutrient
vegetable, but stamachic, cathartic,
and generally q potent blood purifier.
That the tomato Is thought too little Of
by the profession generally is true, but
it may be doubted whether it possesses
those wonderful Alternative powers as
cribed to it by the Americans, many Of
whom persuade themselves that they
are never in health except in the tomato
season. This fruit (as It may also be
called), however, exhibits one remarks
BILE property in connection with plant
diseases, which suggests its use as ger
micide and protector against those
disorders, so many of which we now
know derive their origin from bacteria
and allied germs. If q tomato shrub be
uprooted at the end of the season and
allowed to wither on the bough Of a
fruit tree, or II 1t be burned beneath, II
viii act not only as q curative, but pro-
tective against blight and similar at
tacks. This hostility TO low organisms
Is due to the presence of sulphur, which
is rendered up in an active condition in
the decay or burning. Remembering
that digestion also splits up the tomato
sulphur, probably In a nascent condi-
~ Alr- =, L. s,ka
nal, 1t may have as great potencythere
as experiments prove 1t 10 have outside
the body. Summer diarrhea, English
cholera, and typhoid fever are all due to
low organisms. As the disrrheal and
raneous with the fruiting OF the tomato,
tomato eaters would be more than ordi-
narily likely to escape such diseases.
1t Is worth noting that typhoid fever
whom this expensive vegetable Is almost
unknown. Sailors, too, just after land.
ing, are particularly liable to typhoid,
and In them we may always assume q
more or less scorbutic condition. But
the question of the protection against
disease by certain diets, and by such
habits as the use OF alcohol, tobacco,
and opium, has as yet been hardly in
quired into. Experiments are now be-
ing made on the tncture of the tomato,
which viii help in determining its ther-
apeutic value. Meanwhile, eaten cooked
with hot meats, and In the form of salad
after q cold lunch, 1t Is q pleasant and
useful addition TO our ordinary regimen.
The fruit acids it contains, combined
with the mechanical effect of the seeds
and skin, render it to some extent an
enemy to scurvy as well as laxative, and
the sulphur, with Its known power over
septic conditions, would probably
contribute to make its use a
protection against the poison germs Of
those diseases, like typhoid, that find
their way into the system primarily by
the alimentary canal. One caution is
needed to the lovers of this esculent.
The taste for 1t being an acquired one,
it is more likely to be indulged in to ex-
cess, and we have known almost as
many tomato-maniacs as ostro-maniacs.
All kind of raw fruit, 1t should be re-
membered, except used with care, are
liable TO irritate, and we have known an
instance where person working hard
all day on raw tomatoes only was seized
with infianim alton of the bowels, which
proved fatal in few hours. As an ar
ticle of diet, then, two or three toma-
toes will be found as effective as, and
certainly safer, than q dozen.