The special indications for the use of vegetable food are reserved for the sections on diet in special diseases. It is necessary, however, to say something here of the grape-cure, a method of treatment much in vogue in some parts of France and Germany.

The grape-cure consists, according to Carriere, of a diet exclusively of grapes. They are taken many times a day to repletion. It is usual to commence with a pound, and progressively to increase the amount to two, three, six, and eight pounds, a limit which is not exceeded. The first grape-repast, which may be the most abundant, is in the early morning, but not as are the others, eaten in the vineyard. Another is taken at the time of the morning meal (corresponding to our breakfast); the next after the morning walk at the time of the dejeuner (noon), consisting of bread and water; another before the usual dinner-hour (evening), and finally before retiring. The treatment is continued during the five or six weeks of the duration of the grape-crop.

The grape-cure is used with success in plethora of the portal circulation, diarrhoea, dysentery, hoemorrhoids, and engorgement of the spleen. It renders much service in the principal dyscrasisae, as scrofula, tuberculosis, and phthisis, gout, and cutaneous diseases (Carriére). The influence of change of air, of new scenery, and of the hygienic rules enforced at these resorts, should not be ignored in an estimate of the value of this method.

The composition of the ripe grape is, according to Smith, as follows:

Soluble.                                                                                          Insoluble.

Tartaric acid..............    1·12        Pectose................... ·9

Gum, fat, etc..............      ·5

Salts.....................      ·36

Water...................  79·8

The quantity of nitrogenous matter is insufficient for the needs of the organism, hence the addition of bread and water to the diet of the grape-cure.