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Fruits

"No part of the diet in any season is so healthful, so natural, and so agreeable to the stomach as good and well-ripened fruits." Thus Sir Wm. Temple taught (About Beautiful Gardens, 1685). "I can say it for myself at least, and all my friends, that the season of summer fruits is ever the season of health with us, which I reckon from the beginning of June to the end of September; and for all sicknesses of the stomach (from which most others are judged to proceed) I do not think that any who are like me (who am most subject to them) shall complain whenever they eat thirty or forty cherries before meals, or the like proportion of strawberries, white figs, soft peaches, or grapes perfectly ripe. Now whoever will make sure to eat good fruit must do it out of a garden of his own; so that for all things out of a garden, either of salads, or fruits, a poor man will eat better that has one of his own, than a rich man that has none. The best fruit that is bought has no more of the master's care than how to raise the greatest gains; his business is to have as much fruit as he can upon a few trees, whereas the way to have it excellent is to have but little on many trees." "Health is preserved" (Treatise on Fruit-trees, 1653) "by wholesome meats, and drinks, all the yeare from the garden of fruit trees. These dishes, and drinks from orchard fruits are both alimentall, and physicall; they cure disease, and preserve health. Now the garden of fruit trees is profitable to the body for long life, first by the bodily organs, secondly by the affections of the minde; the sweet perfumes of fruits work immediately upon the spirits for their refreshing; such healthfull ayres are speciall preservatives to health, and are therefore much to be prized." The flavour fruits are chiefly eaten for the sake of their agreeable tastes, but they are also of service by reason of the vegetable salts of potash which they furnish. The food fruits contain a large proportion of special sugar which gives them a high nutritive value. This sugar is lævulose, and better suited to delicate, or gouty digestions than dextrose (or cane-sugar). It may be utilized even by diabetic invalids without detriment, being given in such fruits as apples, green gooseberries, cherries, and green currants, before the sugar is fully matured therein. Or, this "lævulose" can be obtained as a sugar from certain grocers, being a white crystalline article, of which two ounces may be safely, and profitably used with the daily food. The value of fruits as food does not lie in their nutritious constituents nearly so much as in their mineral salts, and in their fruit acids, which are of essential benefit to the health, and the blood. These acids, as already shown, exist in union with alkalies, and render uric acid (gouty, if in excess) soluble. The organic acids of fruits (citric, tartaric, malic, etc.) exist mainly in combination with alkalies, but in such a manner that no chemistry can form their counterpart; we may give to a patient for scurvy citrate of potash as a drug (just such a chemical salt as exists in lemons, and oranges) somewhat successfully, but with nothing of results as compared with those obtained by giving the said fresh fruits, rich in natural citrate of potash. And it is the same with the other acids found combined with an alkaline base, such as malic, and tartaric, in grapes, apples, pears, peaches, and apricots. Bananas, peaches, and prunes are among the least acid fruits. The organic acids combined with their basic earths in fruits improve the quality of the blood, whilst acting as anti-scorbutics, laxatives, and diuretics, increasing the movements of the bowels, 66 and the flow of urine. But all persons cannot eat fruit with impunity. For instance, a case is on record of a patient who could not take a single strawberry without incurring great numbness in both legs; and another of a lady in whom the eating of ripe, uncooked fruit would provoke asthma. Skin eruptions likewise sometimes ensue after any such indulgence. Pepys tells a humorous incident about our parson, Mr. Mills, on Lord's-day, April 17th, 1664, making a remarkable mistake when reading the morning service; instead of saying 'We beseech thee to preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth," he prayed, 'Preserve to our use our Gracious Queen Katherine.' " Oranges, again, prove disturbing to the liver, and biliary functions of some persons; and with others the skin becomes troubled by an eruptive outbreak if one or another sort of certain fruits is indulged in.

The various uses of fruits in relieving diseased conditions of the body have been summarised as follows: Under the category of laxatives we may place oranges, figs, tamarinds, prunes, apples, mulberries, dates, nectarines, and plums; pomegranates, cranberries, blackberries, jewberries, raspberries, barberries, quinces, pears, wild cherries, and medlars are astringent fruits ; grapes, peaches, strawberries, whortleberries, prickly pears, black currants, and melon seeds are provocative of urine; gooseberries, red and white currants, pumpkins, and melons are cooling fruits; whilst lemons, limes, and apples, again, are sedatives to the stomach. For the modern treatment of chronic dysentery the value of certain kinds of fresh fruit has come to be recognized in medical practice. Of these fruits may be specified apples, strawberries, fresh figs, and tomatoes, all of which are seed fruits as distinguished from stone fruits; it is essential that they shall be absolutely sound, and in good condition. Dr. Lacy, of Guernsey, has successfully practised this treatment for many years, and recently it has come into use by other physicians for chronic dysentery, and diarrhea, with most happy results. Professor Sheridan has lately reported to the Linnæan Society his conclusions from experiments to ascertain the digestive qualities of various fruits, such as the fig, pineapple, melon, banana, apple, orange, also the vegetable marrow, cucumber, lettuce, dandelion, etc. He has found that the enzyme, or ferment, contained in the juices of these plants will exercise the property of peptonizing the higher proteids, and is also proteolytic. With the apple, and the orange, their peel is particularly sensitive in this respect, whilst the pulp is less so. Those fruits which we do not peel before they are eaten should certainly be thoroughly washed first, as it is impossible to say what dirty places they may have been in since gathered, or what unclean hands they may have passed through; and sundry diseases can be conveyed by contaminated fruit.

Speaking broadly, we eat fruits more for the sake of their flavours, and sweetness, than for the actual nourishment which they afford. Of the various sorts, apples, apricots, bananas, dates, figs, grapes, plums, prunes, raisins, strawberries, and raspberries are best supplied with substantial proteid; whilst the fattening, and warming principles are chiefly found in the dried sweet fruits containing lævulose, and vegetable gums; cranberries being the most acid fruit. The mineral constituents are chiefly salts of potash, united with the acids (citric, malic, and tartaric), which give a pleasant flavour, but do not cause sour digestion. When converted by the heat of the blood into foods, the acids are burnt off into carbon, and the alkaline bases remain to circulate. Moreover, as fruits ripen the acids diminish to some extent. Cooking renders fruit more digestible, by softening the cellulose, and by converting the gums into a gelatinous form; but a great loss is sustained unless the fruit-juice is eaten with the fruit (stewed for preference), and then it proves of service against constipation, or inactivity of the liver. Uncooked fruits should be warmed for easier digestion by weakly persons. As to taking cane sugar with fruit, if gouty acids, as urates, are already in the blood of those who live freely, or indulge in alcohol, and if these acids are ready to cause fermentation within the digestive organs, such fruits will start this fermentation anew, and further gouty salts will accrue; but if by judicious abstinence the blood is set free from urates, and they be not provoked again, then cane sugar may be taken with impunity as a welcome addition to fresh fruits (though their more exquisite flavours will be masked thereby). Compotes fresh fruits stewed with sugar. make a syrup of three and a half cups of sugar, and two and a half cups of water, and boil for five minutes from the time of its beginning to boil; when it is boiling drop the fruit in carefully, a few pieces at a time, so that it shall not break; cook until tender, but firm enough to keep their shape; remove with a are First 66 skimmer, and arrange daintily on a dish; then boil down the syrup until thick. and pour it over the fruit; let this cool before serving. Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, and oranges may all be cooked in this wholesome way. Charles Lamb, in his early story (a sweet, homely, pathetic pastoral), of Rosamund Gray, draws the moral: "Shall the good housewife take such pains in pickling, and preserving her garden fruits, her walnuts, her apricots, and quinces: and is there not much spiritual housewifery in treasuring up our mind's best fruits-our heart's meditations in its most favoured moments?" Eating strawberries out of season," said Washington "invariably produces mental depression. I do not believe there would be so many suicides (more frequent in the spring than at any other time of the year) if people would not eat strawberries until they are ripe at home." The use of fruit will materially help to diminish a craving for alcohol. Lord Chesterfield, in one of his celebrated letters to his son Philip Stanhope, when in Italy (1749), wrote: "Fruit when full ripe is very wholesome, but then it must be within certain bounds as to quantity, for I have known many of my countrymen die of bloody fluxes by indulging in too great a quantity of fruit in those countries where from the goodness, and the ripeness of it, they thought it could do them no harm." Scientists now find that cherries, strawberries, and some other fruits tend to lessen the quantity of uric acid in gouty subjects by the action of their quinic acid, or "China saure."

Fruit soups are to be commended as agreeable, and useful; they can be made by boiling fresh, or dried fruits in water (with or without the addition of sugar, lemon-peel, etc.), and then freeing them from the solid residue by pressing, and straining off. These soups are pleasant to some persons as drinks, being sustaining, because they will contain quite a small amount of albuminates, rather more carbohydrates, and certain of the organic acids. Apples stewed with raisins make an excellent dish for overcoming constipation: Pare, core, and cut into quarters a dozen, or more, of medium-sized apples; clean thoroughly as many raisins of good quality as equal in weight one-fourth of the apples employed, and pour over these raisins one quart of boiling water; then let them steep until well swollen; stone them, and add the apples, proceeding to cook them until tender. Some sugar to sweeten may be added if desired, although scarcely needed unless the apples are very tart. Dried apples soaked overnight may be stewed with raisins in the same way for about forty minutes. As already noted (page 51), apples from which the juices have been artificially evaporated, and then used independently, are sometimes sold in the shops as dried applerings, or snitz. These "snitz" are bleached with sulphur to prevent them from turning brown.

An old recipe of 1754 by the Duke of Bolton's chef ordered : "For making blackcaps, take a dozen good pippins, cut each of them into halves, and remove the cores; then place them on a right mazarine dish with their skins on, the cut sides downwards; put to them a very little water, and scrape on them some loaf sugar; put them in a hot oven till the skins are burnt black, and your apples tender; serve them on plates, strewed over with sugar." To make a simple apple-water, as an excellent fever-drink, "slice up thinly three or four good apples, without peeling them; boil these in a clean saucepan with a quart of water, and a little sugar, until the slices of apple are soft; the apple-water must then be strained through a piece of clean muslin into a jug, where it should be left until cold. For applejelly, "take some cooking apples, and cut them in quarters, but without paring, or coring them; put them to boil, one quart of water to every pound of fruit; when they are boiled to a pulp, strain through a sieve, or bag; then to every pint of juice put one pound of sugar, and boil till it jellies, stirring all the time." "Line Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, when leaving Baden Baden, after a sojourn there in 1876, brought with her a noted Apple-cake, and the recipe for making it, "Æpfel kuchen mit Rahm Güss." The kitchen there boasted an excellent cook named Marie, and it was she who first made this capital cake for our late Queen. Marie has since then gone over to the great majority, but her excellent Apple-cake lives on. a round baking-sheet which has been buttered, with a paste (not made too thick) composed with one pound of sifted flour, half a pound of fresh butter, six hard-boiled yolks of eggs (having passed the same through a fine wire sieve), six raw yolks of eggs, half a pound of castor sugar, some ground cinnamon, a little ground cloves, and a few tablespoonfuls of cream; mix thoroughly and roll out thinly; the paste should be of the colour of cocoa. In lining the baking-sheet, bring the pastry slightly above the edge. Wash, and pick equal quantities of currants, and sultanas; peel some Wellington apples, and cut them into quarters, which are to be cut again into the thinnest possible slices, so as to well cover the base of the paste with these slices of apples, and with the currants, and sultanas. Now place three-quarters of a pound of castor sugar in a basin, and work well into this nine yolks of eggs, and whip the whites. Mix in lightly half a pound of finely-sifted flour, adding a little ground cinnamon, putting in the whipped whites last. Fill up the paste containing the apples, currants, and sultanas with this mixture, and bake in a moderate oven, being very careful that the bottom paste is well cooked. When the cake is done, sprinkle it over with fine cinnamon-sugar, cut it out in pieces, and serve cold in a napkin." Pears are a colder fruit than apples, having an astringent quality, with an earthy substance in their composition. Their cellular tissue contains minute stony concretions which make the fruit in most of its varieties bite short, and crisp. Pears owe their special taste to an amylacetate; they also contain malic acid, pectose, gum, sugar, albumin, mineral matter, cellulose, and water. When peeled they constipate, but with their skins on they are somewhat laxative. Lemery told about Pears (1675): "They create an appetite, and do fortify the stomach; those that be of a sour and harsh taste are more binding than the others, and fitter to stop a looseness." Perry is a fermented drink brewed from the juice of Pears; it is described by Gerarde as "a wine made of the juice of Pears, called in English, Perry, which purgeth those that are not accustomed to take thereof, especially when it is new. Notwithstanding, it is a wholesome drink (being taken in small quantities) as wine; it comforteth, and warmeth the stomacke, and causeth good digestion." The Barland Pear, which was chiefly cultivated in the seventeenth century, still retains its health, and vigour; the identical trees in Herefordshire which then supplied excellent liquor, continuing to do so in this, the twentieth century. During Henry the Eighth's reign a "Warden" Pear ("wearden," because long-keeping) was commonly grown in orchards. Evelyn, in his Pomona, says: "Pears are nourishing, especially the baked Wardens, edulcorated with sugar, and are exceedingly restorative in consumptions; the Perry being a great cordial." The chemical gout of Pears can be artificially imitated in the laboratory, and an essence made thus is used for flavouring 66 Pear-drops, and other sweetmeats; the said acetate-amyl essence being got as an ether from vinegar, and potato oil. Perry owns about 1 per cent of alcohol over cider, and a slightly larger proportion of malic acid, so that it is somewhat more stimulating, and better calculated to produce the healthful effects of vegetable acids in the body. Pears were deemed by the Romans an antidote to poisonous fungi; and for this reason (which subsequent experience has confirmed) Perry is still reckoned the best thing to be taken after partaking freely of mushrooms. A time-worn maxim directs that after eating Pears wine must be drunk as a corrective, or else mischief may ensue : Apres le poire ou le vin, ou le prêtre." When Jersey Pears, or other such superior fruit, are gathered in the autumn, being fully grown, they are then woody, and acid, and unfit for food; but by being stored for one, two, or three months they become lusciously tender, and sweet; the woody fibre is converted by fermentation into sugar (as happens with ensilage), and the harsh acids are neutralized, the air having been excluded by the thick rind, whilst the fibre is closely packed. A crop of small Pears grown in Switzerland, which ripen in September, is made into the wholesome "Birnen-bonig," as found on every hotel breakfast table. "Pear puddings" were fashioned in Shakespeare's day, but not containing any Pears; they consisted of cold chicken chopped up with sugar, currants, and spices, being moulded into shapes like Pears. The statesman Hume, when at St. Stephens, never purchased food from the kitchen there, but took thither with him a pocketful of Pears as refreshment. The Pear tree loves a sunny house-front, some sweet old-fashioned country mansion with ancient gables, where the fruit may be reached through the lattice.

The remedial constituent principles of other fruits available for curative purposes may be stated in brief thus: Much acid (citric, and malic) which is astringent, and helpful against sluggishness of the liver, as in the Cranberry, belonging to the Bilberry tribe. This is a small fruit, brilliantly red in colour when ripe; it makes a delightful jam, with a keen flavour, somewhat bitter, and useful as a tonic. There is likewise an aromatic acid in the Medlar (Mespilus germanica) whilst passing into the early stages of decay; but this fruit when first gathered is hard, harsh, and uneatable. In Shakespeare's As you like it occurs the passage, "You'll be rotten ere you be half ripe; and that's the right virtue of the Medlar." "This fruit," says Culpeper, "is old Saturn's, and very retentive." The small stones found within the Medlar, when dried, and powdered, will help to dissolve gravel in the kidneys, or bladder. Again, the Currants (Ribes), black, red, and white, by their fresh juices exercise salutary actions; these juices are anti-putrescent, containing citric, and malic acids. Both red, and white Currants give help in most forms of obstinate visceral obstruction, and they correct impurities in the blood. The Black Currant, by its viscid, sweet, aromatic juice (thickened over the fire), makes a "robb" of capital use for relieving a sore throat, or quinsy. This old-fashioned "robb," or "rob," is an inspissated fruit juice (of ripe fruit) mixed with honey, or sugar, to the consistence of a conserve, and is to be preferred before the berries themselves. White Currants are the most simple in kind, and the Red are a step in advance. In northern Counties the Red Currant is known as Wineberry, or Garnetberry, from its rich ruddy colour, and transparency. When made into a jelly with sugar (aided by the chemical "pectin" of the fruit) the juice of Red Currants acts as an anti-putrescent, being therefore taken at table with venison, or hare, and other "high" meats. The sweetened juice is a favourite drink in Paris, being preferred there to Orgeat (a syrup of almonds). Both the Red and the Black Currants afford a useful home-made wine. "Ex eo optimum vinum fieri potest, non deterius vinis vetioribus viteis," wrote Haller in 1750. The White Currants yield a wine which is still superior, and which becomes improved by keeping, even for twenty years. Dr. Thornton says: "I have used old wine of White Currants for calculous affections, and it has surpassed all expectation." The Black Currant is often named by our peasantry "Quinsyberry"; its jelly (for a sore throat) should not be made with too much sugar, else the medicinal virtues will be impaired.

From the Blackthorn of our hedgerows is gathered in the autumn an oval blue-black fruit, the Sloe, harsh, and sour of taste, but presently mellowed, and covered with a fine purple bloom. The juice of this fruit whilst unripe is highly astringent, and is a popular remedy for stopping a flow of blood from the The ripe fruit yields a dark ruby juice which, when bottled with sugar, and kept for some time, is an excellent astringent cordial. Our cultivated Plums are descendants of the Sloe, nose. being most varied in form, and character. When ripe they are cooling, and slightly laxative, especially the French fruit, which is dried, and bottled for dessert. The garden fruit contains less sugar than cherries, but a large quantity of gelatinizing pectose. Unripe Plums will provoke severe diarrhea.

From France has come the Green Gage, having been brought to England from the Monastery of La Grande Chartreuse about the middle of the eighteenth century by the Reverend John Gage, of Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, and hence was derived its name. Culpeper said: “All Plumbs are under Venus, and are like women-some better, some worse." Mr. Walter Shandy, the father of Tristram (Sterne), "when having to take his wife to London for her lying-in, was sadly vexed, more by the provoking time of the year than by everything else, this being towards the end of September, when his wall-fruit, and Green Gages especially, (in which he was very curious), were just ready for pulling! Had he been whistled up to London in any other month of the whole year, he should not have said three words about it." There are also the Golden Gage, and the Transparent Gage, each of these being sweet, luscious, and preventive of gout by their fruit acids, which become alkaline presently in the blood. It should have been stated above that Red Currant jelly, being antiseptic, will, if applied externally immediately after a burn, ease the pain, and prevent inflammation, or the formation of blisters. 66 Again, the Gooseberry (Ribes grossularia) contains citric acid, pectose, sugar, and mineral matters; the pectose under heat making a capital jelly of this fruit. The juice was said of old to cure all inflammations"; it is sub-acid when the Gooseberries are green, and is corrective of putrescent foods, such as mackerel, or goose. The French name for Gooseberry sauce is “à l'Anglaise; aux groseilles à Maquereux." From the Red Gooseberry may be prepared an excellent light jelly, which is of service to sedentary, plethoric, and bilious subjects. The Yellow Gooseberry is richer, and more vinous of taste, suiting admirably for Gooseberry wine. Gooseberry fool" consists of the unripe green fruit foulé (crushed, or beaten up), with cream, or milk. In Devon the rustics call Gooseberries "Deberries," and in Sussex they are familiarly known as Goosegogs." The Scotch name this fruit when ripe "Honeyblobs." In Ramsay's Scottish Life and Character, we read : 66 "He saw out of the coach window a woman selling the sweet Yellow Gooseberries, and he cried, 'Gie me a haporth o' Honeyblobs.'" Wild Sloes yield, if made into Sloe-gin, certain soluble phosphates which are of specific benefit for bloodlessness, and brainfag. This is a celebrated Devonshire liqueur prepared from the Blackthorn, and Juniper fruits, and of value for its restorative, sustaining principles.

Some reference must be made to other fruits useful for curative purposes by reason of their medicinal constituents-the Mulberry, Prune, Peach, Quince, Raspberry, and Tamarind.

Mulberries (Morus nigra) are grown commonly in the orchard, or paddock, or gardens, where this well-known, rich, syrupy fruit ripens in September. The juice, boiled with sugar, is admirable for curing sore throats, especially of the putrid sort, when used in gargles; also for thrush in the mouth; and the ripe fruit is gently laxative. Mulberries are particularly wholesome for gouty, or rheumatic persons, because their sweet juice does not undergo acetous fermentation in the stomach. This juice contains malic, and citric acids, with glucose, pectin, and gum. In France Mulberries are served at the beginning of a meal. The fruit, with its abundant luscious juice, of regal hue, is used in Devonshire for mixing with cider during fermentation, giving to the drink a pleasant taste, and a deep red colour. Mulberries are remarkable for their large quantity of fruit sugar, being excelled in this respect only by the fig, the grape, and the cherry. In the City of Naples, during the summer, fruit-sellers come in betimes in the morning from the suburbs. The red Mulberries are brought first, very early, with a layer of snow upon them to keep them fresh, and cool; they are carried in by women, and are eaten at the beginning of breakfast (snow and fruit together). Later in the day white Mulberries are brought in by boys. The bargains are struck by gestures, in that wonderfully expressive language of signs which can replace speech altogether, and which invariably accompanies it, in rapid pantomime, hands, head, eyes, and every part of the body emphasizing the spoken words; thus has it been from early Roman days. When perfectly ripe, Mulberries somewhat relax the belly, but when unripe (particularly if dried) they will "bind exceedingly, and are therefore given to such as have lasks, and fluxes." A pleasant home-made wine can be brewed from ripe Mulberries. "Alice" (in Through the Looking Glass) "found herself singing the old catch of children as they dance round, hand-in-hand, in a circle, 'Here we go round the Mulberry bush,' which certainly was funny."

The Bilberry, Whortleberry, Trackleberry, Blackheart, or Whinberry, grows abundantly in our heathy, and mountainous districts, as a small, branched shrub bearing globular wax-like flowers, and black, berries, which are covered when quite fresh with a grey bloom. The Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is a capital astringent, and from it can be made a useful domestic cordial as such. If some good brandy be poured over two handfuls of the bruised fruit in a bottle, this will form an extract which will continually improve by being kept. Obstinate diarrhea may be remedied by giving doses of a tablespoonful of such extract, with a wineglassful of warm water, every two hours whilst needed, even for severe dysenteric diarrhea. The berries contain chemically much tannin. An extract of Bilberries, when brushed on skin surfaces affected by eczema, and other such diseased conditions, being afterwards covered over with cotton-wool, will signally relieve. Bilberry pudding is one of the things to be commended for consumptive, or scrofulous patients. Together with the Bilberries, some of the moorland air from whence they come seems to be also swallowed; and perhaps reminiscences arise of the sweet fresh breeze, and the short, pleasant grass of the Bilberry hills, and then it's 66 Oh, who would o'er the downs so free?" Why, the consumptive, and delicate people, to be sure! "Make a crust as light as you can; grease a basin, and line it with the crust; half fill it with well-picked Bilberries; strew two tablespoonfuls of sugar over them, and continue to fill in fruit until the basin is well filled up, and heaped; next put on the crust, flour a cloth, tie it over, and boil for two hours." The Irish call them "Frawms." Lowell, in Fireside Travels, tells that the greater part of what is now Cambridge Port, U.S.A., was at one time a "Huckleberry pasture." As already notified, against the intestinal bacilli of typhoid fever the fruit of the Bilberry shrub affords a specific remedy, because the small, sweet, blackish, purple berries are highly antifermentative, freeing the stools from putridity, and the bowels from flatulence. It has been shown experimentally that the typhoid bacillus becomes destroyed by Bilberry juice, and prevented from recurrent growth, of which there is otherwise a risk, leading to a relapse. This juice gives relief against intestinal colic, besides being admirable when applied to a sore tongue, as well as for burns. It contains fruit sugar, malic acid, limonic acid, a pigment, tannin, and pectins. The typhoid bacillus becomes killed within twelve hours.

Certain fruits are largely imported from countries where they abound more plentifully than with ourselves, as canned, or tinned fruits, excellent in quality when preserved air-tight. However, if a can of apricots, cherries, peaches, or other fruit be opened, seeing that each of these several fruits is acidulous, then, unless the contents are immediately turned out upon an earthenware plate, or into a dish made of earthenware, or glass, the action of the acid combining with the surrounding air will begin to engender a deadly metallic poison. If the fruit is allowed to stand for some time in the opened tin, or metal can, then the work of poison goes on. Fresh fruits in hermeticallysealed cans, if properly prepared, and kept air-tight, do not generate any poison. For a similar reason lemonade, or other extemporized sustaining drinks which are acidulous, should never be made in a tin bucket, nor allowed to stand in a vessel of tin. Jams, and Preserves, consist of fruits conserved in a strong solution of sugar. The fruit acids, aided by the high temperature employed in the course of preparation, bring about the conversion of a considerable part of the cane sugar into what is termed the "invert" form, i.e., a mixture of dextrin, and lævulose, such as may be made by boiling cane sugar with acids. "Almost half the weight of any jam is made up of sugar in one form or another." Few persons realize now-a-days how many of the good old-fashioned preserves were had recourse to formerly in times of sickness. Black Currant jam, for instance, was almost a specific, and in those days every housewife kept by her a store thereof for needs of illness. Elder flowers, again, were used for making a drink invaluable for colds, and bronchial troubles. In short, with the well-stocked herb garden the variety of dainty remedies which could be produced was almost infinite. Said the White Queen to Alice (in Through the Looking Glass), “I'll take you with pleasure as my lady's-maid: twopence a week, and jam every other day." Alice replied, "I don't care for jam: I don't want any to-day, at any rate." "You couldn't have it if you did want it," said the Queen ; "the rule is jam to-morrow, and jam yesterday, but never jam to-day." "It must come to jam to-day," Alice objected. "No, it can't," said the Queen; "it's jam every other day; to-day isn't any other day, you know."