The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-10-30
Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1885.
Importance Of Fruit As Food.

In the Popular Science Monthly, lor
September, II. Benjafield, an Austral-
ian medical man, writing Oh fruit as
food and medicine, declares that the
Creator is so anxious that this very
necessary food shall he eaten by his
creatures that he makes ii beautiful to
look upon, sweet and attractive in
smell, and gives to it such varieties of
flavor that the most fastidious can be
satisfied. And yet, in spite OF all TINS,
the great mass OF the people LOOK upon
fruit as luxury upon which they can
only spend odd pennies for the amuse-
ment of their children. And as for the
amount of drugs swallowed which
should be replaced in great measure by
fruit it is beyond any power to calcu-
late. Millions upon millions of money
are spent annually upon mercurial and
Otter purgatives, most of which Wouio
be quite unnecessary if the people
would but look upon fruit as neces-
sary article of diet. ,
Lemon Juice has been recommended
as a specific for rheumatism. Garrod,
the great London authority on gout:
advises his patients 10 take oranges,
lemons, strawberries, grapes, apples,
pears, etc. Tardieu, the great French
authority, maintains that the salts OF
potash found so plentiful in fruits are
the chief agents in purifying the blood
from those rheumatic and gouty
poisons. Perhaps in our unnatural,
civilized society, sluggish action of the
bowels and liver is responsible for
more actual misery than any other all
ment. Headache. indigestion, con-
stipation, hemmorhoids and 4 general
ly miserable condition are but too Of
ten the experience of the sufferer, and
to overcome it about half the drugs in
the world are given in all sorts of COM
pounds.
The writer mentioned says: But
the blood is the life, poor blood means
poor spirits, poor strength, poor breath,
and poor circulation. Impure blood
means gout, rheumatism, skin diseases
ricketts, and other troubles. AS it is
proved that fruit will purify and i'm
prove the quality of the blood, it must
follow that fruit is both food ana
medicine combined. In fevers L use
grapes and strawberries, giving them
to nv patients in small, but frequent
doses-oranges and baked apples, if the
other are not obtainable. For rheuma-
tism, plenty Of lemons are invaluable.
White girls with miserable, pallid COM
plexions want quart of strawberries
q day where these are no obtainable,
bananas, which contain much iron, are
a good substitute. Probably, OF oil
fruits, the apple stands unr'valed for
general purposes in the household
either raw or cooked, it can be taken
by nearly every body, and it contains
similar properties to the other more de-
licate fruits. TO my mind, the pear is
more easily digested than the apple,
and for eating uncooked it is superior
to it,"
A favorite argument with the vege-
tarians is that the strongest, the most
powerful and serviceable animals are
those which subsist wholly on Vegeta-
BILE food. The OK, the horse and the
elephant are examples. They are not
only the most powerful and the most
useful as beasts of burden, but a most
important quality is their tractability
and amiability. If these animals were
savage and ferocious as the carnivore,
the meat-eaters, they would be wholly
unfit for the extreme usefulness or
their multifarious and Invaluable ser
vices. When it comes to the human
races in a wild state, it will be found
that the exclusive meat-eaters are al
ways savage and ferocious, while those
who subsist chiefly on fruits and vege-
tables are of gentler dispositions
Since the body Of man is made out of
the foods he eats, it is plain that diet
must have very great deal to do with
his health, his physical strength, his
mental and moral qualities. There
fore, without being converted to any
special school of dietics, it must be adj
mitted that fruit is a most valuable al
ticle of food, and its use is to be encour-
aged under all proper conditions.-New
Orleans Picayune.