The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-09-13
THE VALUE OF FRUITS
Products of Tree, Bush and Vine Good for
Health

In the vineyard lands of Western
Europe, especially in Switzerland and
the valley of the Rhine, there are hun
dreds OF Trauben Kuren, or grape
cure establishments, that attract
health seekers from every country OF
the civilized world. says What to
! Eat.
The grape fad came into fashion
about sixty years ago, and, in COM
parison with such insanities as the
sulphur water craze, could be called
step in the right direction; yet the
persistence of it's popularity is exact
ly that of Charles Lamps pig crema-
tories.
Pigs" says the immortal essayist.
used to be eaten raw in China, till
the accidental conflagration of a swine
herds cottage revealed the merits of
roast pork. The secret was divulged,
and for a series of generations, cpl
cures burned down a dwelling house
whenever they desired to enjoy a
feast of spare-ribs'
AS specific for the cure of alimen-
tary disorders grape juice is superior
10 orimstone; but American dyspep-
tics might conduct their Trauben Ku-
rem at home, and 1t is almost equally
certain that numberless varieties OF
berries and fruit could be made TO
answer the same purpose as grapes.
turks and Agnostics not not differ
more widely in their plans of saliva
ton do in their estimates of food
values; bread, rice, beans, beef and
nsh have each ben recommended as
the true staff of life. Baron Liebig, M.
d. Ph, Phi, D., and what not, publish
ed elaborate tabulations of analysis.
stating the nutritive ingredients of va
rious articles of diet, but also pretend
ed to demonstrate the nutritious prop
critics of alcoholic theory wholly and
pass'onately repudiated by our tenn
perance reformers.
Good of FOrebears.
But saints and sinners must admit
that fruit seems to have formed the
staple diet of our anthropoid ancestors
the chief entree of the menu served in
the household of our mother Nature
Genesis and Darwin agree on that
point; our very redskins would hesitate
TO turn the grand old gardener into
a boss butcher Mirandez in his history
of Peru states that the traditions of
"A,
where the Sun God treated his guests
to sweet fruit and bread grown on
trees" The Japs abhor cows milk, and
millions of Hindoos would prefer death
to a diet of beefsteaks, but oranges
find a market in Norway and Nubia, in
China and Chile, and the natives of
the Arctic regions eschew fruit only
for the reason that makes captive
Apaches renounce hades--they can't
raise it.
But, say, didn't your lawgiver pro-
hibit the flesh of swine?" asked a Bos-
ton philosopher who caught Hebrew
friend in a pork-and-beans restaurant.
We'll, you see, Moses vas a shep-
herd" explained the transgressor, "he
wanted to sell mutton" and one is Of
ten tempted to infer that the prejudice
against fruit must have been propa-
gated by the beef trust. DR.. Charles
Page records his experience in a Con-
federate garrison town, where the
strict prohibition of fruit and vege-
tables did not save him from raging
fevers till he made his escape across
the border and recovered on a diet Of
watermelons, the same melons the
Board of Health had denounced as
cholera pills." French prisoners in
the camp of Abdel Cader learned to
prefer dates to bread and meat; but a
wholesale test was that of the plague
that ravaged the cities Of the Mediter-
ranean coastlands in 1921. The medi-
cal pundits of Marseille ascribed II
to the products Of the fruit farms and
excluded their pedlers on pain of death,
but the futiiity OF their remedies caus-
ed thousand 10 take refuge I'm the
groves and rocks of the surrounding
hill country. where they subslsted
chiefly on wlld-growing berries. OF
these refugees four-ffths recovered.
while less than one-hfth survived the
treatment Of the fruit-dreading city
doctors. In spite 81 drugs. leeches and
bllsters. the epidemic increased in Vio-
lence, il devOured rich and poor, doc
tors and patients. I'm the number OF
rs victims reached 1880
PuFines the blood.
II was q lesson not easy to forget,