Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/695

Rh the liver. Now, the acids and pectones in fruit peculiarly assist the acids of the stomach. Only lately even royalty has been taking lemon juice in tea instead of sugar, and lemon juice has been prescribed largely by physicians to help weak digestion, simply because these acids exist very abundantly in the lemon.

Another great action of fruit in the body is its shall—I call it—antiscorbutic action. It keeps the body in a healthy condition. When out on a long voyage where fruit is scarce how one longs for it! Those who have been without it for an extended time long for it until even in their dreams they picture the fruit their system so badly needs. The following case will illustrate my meaning: A ship's crew had any amount of fresh meat, new bread, tea, coffee, etc., aboard, but no fruit nor vegetables. As days went by the men grew haggard, breathless, and weak, with violent, tearing rheumatic pains in the joints. Then the gums grew spongy, the blood broke through its veins, and the whole system was demoralized and dying. In short, they were dying of scurvy. A fruit ship passing sent aboard a good supply of oranges and lemons, which were greedily eaten by the sufferers. Mark the the result: though they still went on eating the same food the addition of fruit to their diet made all the difference between life and death. In a few days their gums began to heal, the blood became healthy, natural color came in their faces, and strength came to the limbs so lately racked with pain. This is, perhaps, an extreme illustration, but I am satisfied that in a lesser degree the want of fruit is responsible for much of the illness in the world. When a student I remember sitting beside a leading London surgeon as an unhealthy child was brought in suffering from a scrofulous-looking rash over the face. Turning to us he exclaimed, "That is a rash from eating lollies." And many times since have I had occasion to remember his teaching, as I have seen it verified. Good fruit clears the blood and prevents this sort of thing. This lemon-juice cure for rheumatism is founded on scientific facts, and having suffered myself from acute gout for the last fifteen years, I have proved over and over again the advantages which are obtained from eating fruit. Garrod, the great London authority on gout, advises his patients to take oranges, lemons, strawberries, grapes, apples, pears, etc. Tardieu, the great French authority, maintains that the salts of potash found so plentifully in fruits are the chief agents in purifying the blood from these 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 ailment. Headache, indigestion, constipation, hæemorrhoids, and a generally miserable condition, are but too often the experience of the sufferer, and to overcome it about half the drugs