The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-02
Fruit in the Dietary.

A recent issue of the Medical Classics
contained an article on the eating of
fruit, by DIR. Ferdinand Seeger, that is
most suggestive of thought. He says:
" 1t is an observation not less import
ant than true, that by attending merely
to proper diet phlegmatic habit may
frequently be changed into sanguine
one, and the hypOchondriac may be so
altered as to become cheerful and
contented member of society. Expe-
rience and observation show that too
frequent and excessive use of animal
food disposes the fluids to putrefaction,
and, in sanguine temperaments espe-
cially, communicates to the mind de-
gree of ferocity. Nations subssting
chiefly upon the flesh of animals, like
the Tartars, are, in general, more
fierce than others; and the same effect
is manifest in carnivorous animals;
they emit very disagreeable smell =,
and both their flesh and milk have an
unpleasant and repelling taste. Even
an infant will refuse the breast when
its nurse has eaten too much animal
food. Those who eat great quantities
of meat and little bread and vegetables
must necessarily acquire an offensive
breath. 1t appears, therefore, to be
most suitable and conducive to health
to combine animal with vegetable
food in due proportions" The pro-
portion of vegetables to meat eaten Y
each person, DR.. Seeger says, should
be two-thirds or three-fourths vege-
tables to one-third or one-fourth meat.
DR.. Seeger gives several authorities for
the eating of fruit at the commence
ment of the meal. He says: 1.-THE
eating of fruit at the commencement of
a meal, while it presents bland or
congenial material to the delicate lin
ing of the membrane of the alimentary
organs, forming welcome precursor
to the more substantial articles, many
of which require protracted energy for
their elaboration into nutriment, at the
same time is, to some extent, safe
guard against the overlooking which
comes from reserving the fruits till the
stomach is already overloaded with
enough, perhaps too much, of other
food. Fruits should be ripe when
their laxative effect should be eaten
before anything else. In this way con-
stipation may, with many individuals,
be obviated, especially when the guam
tity of other articles of the meal is
within reasonable limits. Constipa-
tion is the foundation of many diseases,
and the cause of lassitude that depletes
working force. This difficulty, DR..
Seeger says, can be removed by atten-
ton to the diet. Fruit he highly rec
ommends as a superior regulator, and q,
in addition, benefit will be derived
from the use of corn bread, cracked
wheat, oatmeal, bread of unbolted flour,
and such vegetables as green corn,
tomatoes and celery" Biliousness will
also yield to careful habits of diet. DIR.
Seeger says "If our bilious friends
would throw aside their liver pills and
study nature while she is in her most
smiling and bounteous mood, would al
low her to tempt them as Eve tempted
old Adam, they would take to fruit,
and, by pleasant, natural and healthful
methods, free themselves of the thick,
bilious impurities which make them a
nuisance to themselves as well as to al
around them. Biliousness is one OF
those demons that can be pretty well
exercised by proper diet and due
amount of exercise. A gentle diarrhel
brought on by eating ripe fruit in sum
mer has frequently salutary effect
Acid and astringent fruit, being rather
medicine than food, is less hurtful tc
the healthy and to children than is com
monty imagined. Instead of being noX
ious, as some imagine, in inhammatory
disorders, it is of the greatest service
Persons of thick and languid BLOOD
can not eat anything more conducive tC
health than fruit, as it possesses thu
property of alternating and putting
such blood in notion" The diet is thu
source of health and disease, and while
it is in the power of every housewife t
select what shall determine the health
of the family, it is subject that receive
less study and attention than any othe
one subject relating to the family life
Christian Union.