The Washington times., 1894-03-22
CAUSES OF INDIGESTION.

More the Fault of Poor Cooking than the
Materials.
"It is an established fact" says an eminent
physician in the New York Ledger, ''that GER
tain articles of food composed largely of fruit
are thought to be extremely unwholesome.
They almost always produce indigestion, and
cases of aggravated fatulent dyspepsia are
not uncommon among those who habitually
make use of these dishes. To prove my
theories l had plum pudding made, and in
it were put all of the ingredients 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 marrow, in guam
tity. There were raisins. currants, spices
compounded with butter and all of
the most approved denominations. .As
rule l myself find it impossible to eat of such
food as it is ordinarily prepared. 1t upsets
my digestion for week or so. and /. long
ago, made up my mind that indulgence in
such things did not lay; 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 con-
u
ance of time to recover from its effects. for
was scarcely prepared to believe even my own
theory on this subject. The result of all this
was that experienced not the slightest un-
easiness in any way or form. If had eaten
the simplest meal imaginable could not
have been more comfortable. Thinking that
this might be something of an accident re-
peated 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 a first-class propagating
ground, and they increase in numbers. When
we make such dishes as plum pudding, mince
pie. and the like. we frequently use these
fruits with very little preparation, perhaps
merely rinsing them of. 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, per-
haps for long time. but not at a very high
degree OF heat for it is an axiom of many
cooks that fruit cake should never know a
very hot oven. The result is that the fermenta-
ton 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 incubation, and
are in state to go into the most active
service at once. Then flatulent dys-
pepsia makes the victims life wretched. and
long train of ills almost inevitably follows.
''In making our plum pudding the fruit
was put into an earthen vessel, boiling water
was poured over 1t, and it was allowed to
stand until the water was cool: then fruit
was carefully sorted. every imperfect particle
removed, the raisins stoned, the currants
washed again and again. the citron scraped
and looked over. to see that no bit of objec-
tionable matter 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 ques-
ton that anything short of a salamander
could survive it. And this sort of plum pud-
ding 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 atten-
tion to this matter and report results. Ger
tain it is that the care in preparation and the
high degree of heat have rendered practically
harmless dish which aforetime was always
partaken OF with certain amount OF appre-
hensiOn"