The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-10-04
CAUSES OF ND G -sTIoN.

In the course OF conversation. ire
other day, physician, eminent in his
profession, advanced some very sensi-
bic and practical ideas on the causes
of Indigestion.
Il believe" he said, that a great
many cases of indigestion are trace
able to causes TO which public atten-
ton has never been called.
1T is an esta blished fact that GER
tain articles of food composed largely
of fruit are thought to be extremely
unwholesome. They almost always
produce indigestion. and cases of ag-
gravated fiatulent dyspepsia are not
uncommon among those who habitu-
ally make use of these dishes. To prove
my theories, l had plum-pudding
made. and in it were put all of the in
gradients supposed to be necessary to
produce what an old friend of mine
calls six months of dyspepsia to the
square inch. 1t had the suet, or what
was even richer than this, beef mar
row, in quantity.
There were raiSins, currants, spices
of all sorts, and the whole was COM
pounded with butter and all of the
most approved denominations. As
rule myself find it impossible to eat
of such food, as it is ordinarily pre-
pared. 1t upsets my digestion for a
week or SO, and /, long ago, made mp
my mind that indulgence in such things
did not pay; but for experiments sake
ate heartily of this pudding, which,
by the way, had been steamed for six
hours; then making up my mind to
take all the consequences in a scien-
tific spirit. / gave abundance of time to
recover from its effects, for l was
scarcely prepared to believe even my
own theory on this subject. The re-
suit of all of this was that ! expert
enced not the slightest uneasiness in
any way or form. If had eaten the
simplest meal imaginable. 1 could not
have been more comfortable. Think
ing that this might be something of an
accident, l repeated the experiment
several times with uniform success. And
my theory is this: All sorts of fruit is
dried in the open air and exposed to
every sort of disease germ that may be
found to float about. The fruit offers
them first-class propagating ground,
and they increase in numbers. When
we make such dishes as plum pudding,
mince-pie AID the like, we frequently
use these fruits with very little prepara-
ton. perhaps merely rinsing them off. .
rubbing them between the hands and
the like to remove the larger particles
that may adhere to them. Then they
are cooked in slow oven, perhaps for
long time, but not at a very high de-
gree of heat, for it is an axiom of many
cooks that a fruit-cake should never
know very hot oven. The re-
suit is that the fermentation germs
are not destroyed, and the moment
they come in range of the digestive
juices of the stomach they start into
new life. perhaps increase in vitality
by their incu ba ton and are in a state
to go into the most active service at
once. Then flatulent DYSPEPSIA makes
the victims life wretched, and n long
train of ills almost inevitably follows.
I'm making our plum pudding the
fruit was put into an earthen vessel,
boiling water was poured over it, and
ter was cool; then the fruit was care
fully sorted. every imperfect particle
removed, the raisins stoned, the cur
rants washed again and again. the
citron scraped and looked over, to
see that no bit of Objectionable ma
terial adhered to it. Then, after
the mixing, it was put into the
batter and the steaming was kept up
to the very highest possible pitch until
it seemed out of the question that
anything short of a salamander could
survive it. And this sort of a plum
pudding has been part of our regular
diet and no one has experienced the
slightest annoyance from eating it.
1t would be worth while for intelligent
housekeepers to give little attention
to this matter and report results. Ger
tain It is that the care in preparation
and the high degree of heat have rem
dered practically harmless dish which
aforetime was always partaken OF with
Q certain amount of apprehension.