The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-20
Tbe Tomato as Food.

The profession and the public are by
no means agreed as to the dietc value OF
the tomato. The classical authorities on
food such as Chambers and Atkinson,
dismiss the claims of this vegetable very
curtlv. simply placing it among the anti
scorbutics and allowing it little, If any,
nutritive value The pubic, on the otner
hand believe this ally of the potato 10
be not only a highly nutrient vegetable
but stomachic, a catharic and general
ly potent blood purifier. That the toma-
to is thought too little of by the profession
generally is true, but it may be douoted
whether it possesses those wonderful eS-
terative powers ascribed to it by some
writers many of whom would have us be-
lieye that sufferers from certain ailments
are never really wei except during the
tomato season, says the Fruit World.
This fruit as it may be called eXhlblts,
howe r. one remarkable property in con-
nect.L with plant diseases, which sus-
eests its use as a germicide and prot a =
tor against those diseases, so many OF
which we now know derive their origin
from bacteria and allied germs. If toma-
to is uprooted at the end of the season
and allowed to wither on the bough of a
fruit tree or If 1t is burnt beneath the
tree. it will not only act a curative, but
also as a protective against bhghts and
similar attacks. This hostility TO low or
ganissns is due to the presence of sui
phur. which Is rendered up in an active
condition during the decay of burning
Remembering that digestion also splits
IN the tomato into its chemical consttu-
ents end releases sulphur, probably in a
nascent condition. and probably in the in-
testinal canal, II may have as great po-
tency there as experiments prove it to
have outside the body. Summer diarrhea,
English cholera and typhoid fever are due
to low organisms. As the diarrheal and
typhoid seasons are fortunately contempo-
raneous with the fruiting of the tomato,
Il Is not unrea sonable to assume that to-
mato eaters would be more than or
dinarly likely to escape such diseases. 1t
is worth noting that typhoid fever is more
prevalent among the poor, who, in most
countries of Europe. are not able 10 pur-
chase much of this expensive fruit Sail
ors, too, just after landing, are particu-
larly liable to typhoid and in them we
may always assume more or less scorbu-
tic condition But the question of the pro-
lection against diseases afforded by GER
tain diets and by such habit as the use of
alcohol tobacco and opium has yet hardly
been inquired into.
Experiments are now being made on tie
tincture of the tomato, which will help
in determining its therapeutic value.
Meanwhile, eaten. cooked with hot meats
and in the form of a salad, after a cold
lunch, Il is pleasant and useful to our
ordinary regimen. The fruit acids it con-
tains. combined with the mechanical eff
feet of the seeds and skin, render it to
some extent an enemy to scurvy, as well
as a laxative; and the sulphur, with its
known power over septic conditions,
would probab contribute 10 make its
use a protection against the poison germ
of these diseases, like typhoid, that find
their way into the system primarily by
the alimentary canal.