The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-01
PRAISE FOR THE BANANA.
ONE OF THE BEST FRUITS THAT
 CROWS
A a1Oat UIeruI and Wholesome Food and AIways POpaIar-How it makcs for Inmnernnae

Professors of dietetics tell us that the banana is not, as so many fruits are. a flavor and nothing more, but a food and a source of real nutriment. It is at once useful and delicious It not only gratifies the palate, but sup plies material for combustion and the maintenance of animal heat, while it also builds up the muscles and repairs ] the worn and threadbare nerves. The flour made from it in the dry state is equal in nutritive value to rice, and how invigorating and sustaining rice is has been demonstrated in the recent achievements of the Japanese. Dried 1 and sprinkled with sugar, a form in which it has been recently introduced into this country, the upstart banana is, weight for weight, as nutritious as the venerable fig.
 But it is in the fresh state, clad in it's primrose tunic-the stripping off of which is in itself a fascinating opera tion-that the banana chiefly appeals to us. Its creamy succulence and deli cate odor are inviting, and its pleasant sapor is a prelude to good digestion. Dependent as that sapor is on an ethe- real body which the coal tar investiga- tion have not yet been able to initiate by any chemical essence, it is a subtle stimulus to all subsequent alimentary processes. And thus it is that the ba- mana is an efninently digestible food. No sense of oppression or drowsiness follows on a meal of it, and meal of it may be bulky enough.
 I have seen West Indian negro con- sume twenty stalwart bananas at a sitting and thereafter display unwomt- ed vivacity. It seems to be mainly ab- sorbed by the stomach, and this fact together with the small amount of waste matter 1t coptains-ninety-fiv per cent. if its substance possessing nutritive properties-has led a number of American physicians-Dr. Usery of St. Louis being prominent among them Ito recommend it as food in typhoid fever. Its employment under such cir cumstances, it is said, insures through the stomach an adequate supply of bland nourishment, without imposing any strain on the attenuated and abraded alirnentary canal. In other diseases and in certain dyspeptic dis orders a banana cure, like the grape cure, may prove profitable, and it seems just possible that this mild and | gentle fruit may become a powerful auxiliary to our temperance reformer. It mixes badly with alcohol in any form, and becomes indigestible when taken with spirits and it is alleged that the habitual use of 1t diminishes the drink craving where it exists. The re- mains to be tested by. experiment, but Captain Parsons of the Port Kingston, of the Direct Imperial line, assured me l that since the men on his ship-seamen and stokers-had been allowed to par Iltake at discretion of the bananas which always form considerable part of the cargo, the eonsumption of all alcoholic beverages. has been greatly reduced. a,,
 Perhaps some of the salutary effects of the banana may be due to the trace of copper it contains. A little iron is essential to the blood, and little cop- per may subservei some useful purpose in the human economy. It subserEes highly ornamental purpose in the case of4some of the birds. The brilliant red of the wing feathers of the turacos is due to a coloring matter containing copper derived from the banana, or it's twin brother, the plantain, on which these birds exclusively feed. The ba- mana cannot be recommended as a cos- metic. The colored races who have hitherto been chiefly addicted to 1t, have no complexion to speak of and the scarlet pigment in the wings of the turacos being soluble in water, is apt to be washed out by shower, but per-. haps by its wholesomeness as a food it may contribute to cutaneous clarity. The banana is not what is called an acquired taste. An appreciation of it is not reached through slow stages of diminishing repulsion, but comes at the moment of first introduction. It is ac- ceptable at all ages. The infant ab- sorbs 1t greedily: children devour 1t with delight, the adult does not de- spise it. and the edentulous octogena- rian blesses its agreeable tenderness. And fortunately the appreciation of it's merits is spreading rapidly. Not so long ago it was delicacy in the com pote of the rich man. To-day 1t is to be seen on the huckster's barrowgin all our large towns, and 1t is to be hoped that the supply of this most whole some and delectable food will increase rapidly while the price of it diminishes so that an ample supply of it may be brought within the reach of all.
 Thanks to the establishment of a di- rect line of steamers, bananas are now being brought from Jamaica in prime ondition-bananas, too, of unsur- passed excellence. The people of this country, having been accustomed to the smaller banana brought from the Canaries and Madeira, were at first prejudiced against the larger fruit Of the West Indies. But, having eaten bananas both in Madeira and Jamaica, I can testify that those grown in the latter island are, as regards sweetness, flavor and keeping qualities, on a par ! with . the finest the former can. pro- duce and as they are larger, they are cheaper as a food. Nothing can be more delicious than the Martinique ba- nana-that is, the banana grown in Jamaica-in its native home. and now by the care bestowed on it during transit, when the temperature around it is regulated from hour to hour, it l aa1 h. 5;etrihl1tad in thiS ooIIrt ,xy