Fruits are the first and last choice for recovering your body.

When this truth is realized by the laity nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand professors of the healing art will be obliged to abandon their profession and take to fruit-growing for a living

Many people have heard vaguely of the "grape cure" for diseases arising from over-feeding, and the lemon cure for rheumatism, but for the most part these "cures" remain mere names.

Nevertheless it is almost incredible to the uninitiated what may be accomplished by the abandonment for a time of every kind of food in favour of fruit.

Of course, such a proceeding should not be entered upon in a careless or random fashion.

Too sudden changes of habit are apt to be attended with disturbances that discourage the patient, and cause him to lose patience and abandon the treatment without giving it a fair trial. In countries where the "grape cure" is practised the patient starts by taking one pound of grapes each day, which quantity is gradually increased until he can consume six pounds. As the quantity of grapes is increased that of the ordinary food is decreased, until at last the patient lives on nothing but grapes.[1] I have not visited a "grape cure" centre in person, but I have read that it is not only persons suffering from the effects of over-feeding who find salvation in the "grape cure," but that consumptive patients thrive and even put on weight under it.

The _Herald of Health_ stated, some few years back, that in the South of France where the "grape cure" is practised consumptive patients are fed on grapes alone, and become quite strong and well in a year or two.

And I have myself known wonderful cures to follow on the adoption of a fruitarian dietary in cases of cancer, tumour, gout, eczema, all kinds of inflammatory complaints, and wounds that refused to heal.

Salts and acids as found in organised forms are quite different

affects to the products of the laboratory, notwithstanding that the

chemical composition may be shown to be the same. The chemist may be able to manufacture a "fruit juice," but he cannot, as yet, manufacture the actual fruit. The mysterious life force always evades him. Fruit is a vital food, it supplies the body with something over and above themere elements that the chemist succeeds in isolating by analysis.

The vegetable kingdom possesses the power of directly utilising minerals, and it is only in this "live" form that they are fit for the consumption of man.

In the consumption of sodium chloride (common table salt),

baking powders, and the whole army of mineral drugs and essences, we violate that decree of Nature which ordains that the animal kingdom shall feed upon the vegetable and the vegetable upon the mineral.

_Fruit and the Teeth._

I mention the above because one of the objections that I have heard

cited against the free use of fruit is that "the acids act injuriously

upon the teeth." Until I became a vegetarian I used to visit a dentist

regularly every six months. I had done this for ten years, and nearly

every tooth in my gums had its gold filling. The last time I visited the

dentist I told him that I had become a vegetarian, and he replied that

he rather thought my teeth would decay quicker in future on account of an increased consumption of vegetable acids. But from that day, nownearly six years ago, to the present time, I have never been near adentist. My teeth seem to have taken a new lease of life. It is a fact

that the acids in fruit and vegetables so far from injuring the teeth

benefit them. Many of these acids are strongly antiseptic and actually

destroy the germs that cause the teeth to decay. On the other hand, theydo _not_ attack the enamel of the teeth, while inorganic acids do.

Nothing cleanses the teeth so effectually as to thoroughly chew a large and juicy apple.

_Fruit is a Food._

Until quite recently the majority of English-speaking people have been accustomed to look upon fruit not as a food, but rather as a sweetmeat to be eaten merely for pleasure, and therefore very sparingly. It hasconsequently been banished from its rightful place at the beginning of meals. But fruit is not a "goody," it is a food, and, moreover, acomplete food. All vegetable foods (in their natural state) contain allthe elements necessary to form a complete food. At a pinch human lifemight be supported on any one of them. I say "at a pinch" because ifthe nuts cereals and pulses were ruled out of the dietary it would, formost people, be deficient in fat and proteid (the flesh and muscle-forming element). Nevertheless, fruit alone _will_ sustain life if taken in large quantities with small output of energy on the part of the person living upon it, as witness the "grape cure."[2] The percentage of protein in grapes is particularly high for fruit.

Those people who desire to make a fruitarian dietary their daily

_régime_ cannot do better than take the advice of O. Hashnu Hara, anAmerican writer. He says: "Every adult requires from twelve to sixteen ounces of dry food, _free from water_, daily. To supply this a quarter of a pound of _shelled_ nuts and three-quarters of a pound of any dried fruit must be used. In addition to this, from two to three pounds of any _fresh fruit_ in season goes to complete the day's allowance. These quantities should be weighed out ... and will sustain a full-grown man in perfect health and vitality. The quantity of ripe fresh fruit may be slightly increased in summer, with a corresponding decrease in the dried fruit."

_A Pioneer of Food Remedies.

_

The pioneer, in England, of the treatment of all sorts and conditions of disease by means of a vegetable (chiefly fruit) dietary was Dr. Lambe, acontemporary of the poet Shelley. His last book appeared in 1815, and in it and the one preceding are recorded some wonderful cures, especiallyin cases of cancer. It is only fair to add here that in Dr. Lambe'sopinion no system of cure is completely efficacious so long as thepatient is allowed to drink the ordinary tap or well water. Distilledwater was the only drink he advised. But he held it better still not to drink at all if the necessary liquid could be supplied to the body by means of fresh, juicy fruits. He contended that man is not naturally adrinking animal; that his thirst is a morbid symptom, the outcome of acarnivorous diet and other unwholesome habits. And I think that anyone may prove the truth of this for him or herself if he or she will adopt afruitarian dietary and abstain from the use of salt .