228. These are generally regarded as articles rather of luxury than of food; and were we to form our opinion of their value from their abuse, we should certainly be rather disposed to class them under the head of poisons than of aliments. Nothing can be more mischievous to the invalid than large quantities of apples, pears, and plums, in the form of dessert, after the stomach has been already loaded, and its good-nature taxed to the utmost by its Epicurean master. But, when taken under other circumstances, they contribute to health, and appear to be providentially sent at a season when the body requires that cooling and antiseptic aliment which they are so well calculated to afford. It is not my intention to enter into a minute history of the several kinds; but it will be useful to take a general view of the qualities which distinguish each division, and to state the circumstances which render them useful or objectionable.

229. Fruits may be arranged under the following heads: stone fruits, the apple species, small-seeded fruits, small berries, and farinaceous fruits.

230. The stone fruits have been denounced as the least digestible species by popular acclamation, and I am inclined to acquiesce in the truth of the assertion as a general proposition; but much of the mischief that has been attributed to their use has arisen from the unripe state in which they were eaten. They are, however, certainly less digestible than other species, and more liable to undergo fermentation in the stomach. The hard pulp of certain plums remains also in the alimentary canal for a long time, and is frequently passed without having been materially changed. The ripe peach is the most delicious, as well as one of the most digestible of the stone fruits: the apricot is equally wholesome; but the nectarine is liable to disagree with some stomachs. Cherries are far less digestible: their pulpy texture and skins are not easily disposed of by the stomach; and as the sweetest species contain a considerable excess of acid, they may be objectionable in some cases, and desirable in others.

The apple species is not so dilute and watery as the foregoing fruits, and is less apt to pass into a state of noxious fermentation; but its texture is firmer, and on that account it is retained longer in the stomach, and often proves indigestible, The same observations apply to pears, except that, their texture being in general less firm, they are less objectionable. The orange, when perfectly ripe, may be allowed to the most fastidious dyspeptic: but the white, or inner skin, should be scrupulously rejected, for it is not more digestible than leather. The small-seeded fruits are, by far, the most wholesome. Of these, the ripe strawberry and raspberry deserve the first rank. The grape is also cooling and antiseptic, but the husks and seeds should be rejected. The gooseberry is less wholesome, on account of the indigestibility of the skin, which is too frequently swallowed. The fruits to be classed under the head of small berries, are the cranberry, the bilberry, and the red whortleberry. These are seldom eaten, except when baked, and in that state their acescency seldom proves injurious. The farinaceous fruits are universally unwholesome.

The melon, which is the principal one, is very apt to disagree with weak stomachs, and should never be eaten after dinner, even by persons in health, without a plentiful supply of salt and pepper.

231. The most proper periods for indulgence in fruit appear to be the morning and evening. On some occasions it may be taken with advantage at breakfast, or three hours before dinner, and it affords a light and agreeable repast if taken an hour before bed-time; but these regulations are to be influenced by circumstances which no general rule can possibly embrace.

232. By cookery, fruit, otherwise unwholesome, may be converted into a safe and useful aliment. Apples, when baked, afford a pleasant repast; and from their laxative properties are well adapted to certain cases of dyspepsia. Fruit pies, if the pastry be entirely rejected, may be considered valuable articles of diet. Dried fruits are by no means so useful or safe as is generally imagined; the quantity of sugar which enters into their composition disposes them to fermentation.

233. Having offered some general rules with respect to the circumstances which render food salutary or noxious, and illustrated these principles by an examination of the several classes and species of aliments, it remains for me to say a few words upon the subject of their intermixture. I have already, in the introduction of this work (6), alluded to the mischief which arises from the too-prevailing fashion of introducing at our meals an almost indefinite succession of incompatible dishes. The stomach being distended with soup, the digestion of which, from the very nature of the operations which are necessary for its completion (84), would in itself be a sufficient labour for that organ, is next tempted with fish, rendered indigestible from its sauces; then with flesh and fowl; the vegetable world, as an intelligent reviewer1 has observed, is ransacked from the cryptogamia upwards; and to this miscellaneous aggregate are added the pernicious pasticcios of the pastrycook, and the complex combinations of the confectioner. All these evils, and many more, have those who move in the ordinary society of the present day to contend with.

It is not to one or two good dishes, even abundantly indulged in, but to the overloading the stomach, that such strong objections are to be urged; nine persons in ten eat as much soup and fish as would amply suffice for a meal, and, as far as soup and fish are concerned, would rise from the table, not only satisfied, but saturated. A new stimulus appears in the form of stewed beef, or cotelettes a la supreme: then comes a Bayonne or Westphalia ham, or a pickled tongue, or some analogous salted, but proportionately indigestible, dish, and of each of these enough for a single meal. But this is not all; game follows; and to this again succeed the sweets, and a quantity of cheese. The whole is crowned with a variety of flatulent fruits and indigestible knick-nacks, included under the name of dessert, in which we must not forget to notice a moun, tain of sponge cake 2. Thus, then, it is, that the stomach is made to receive, not one full meal, but a succession of meals rapidly following each other, and vying in their miscellaneous and pernicious nature with the ingredients of Macbeth's cauldron.

Need the philosopher, then, any longer wonder at the increasing number and severity of dyspeptic complaints, with their long train of maladies, amongst the higher classes of society? "Innumerabiles morbos non miraberis, coquos numera." But it may be said, that this is a mere tirade against quantity; against over distention of the stomach; that it argues nothing against variety of food, provided the sum of all the dishes does not exceed that which might be taken of any single one. Without availing myself of the argument so usually applied against plurality of food, that "it induces us to eat too much," I will meet the question upon fair grounds. It is evident that the different varieties of food require very different exertions of the stomach for their digestion; it may be that the gastric juice varies in composition, according to the specific nature of the stimulus which excites the vessels to secrete it; but of this we are uncertain, nor is it essential to the argument: it is sufficient to know, that one species of food is passed into the duodenum in a chymified state in half the time which is required to effect the same change in another.

Where, then, the stomach is charged with contents which do not harmonise with each other in this respect, we shall have the several parts of the mixed mass at the same time in different stages of digestion: one part will therefore be retained beyond the period destined for its expulsion, while another will be hurried forward before its change has been sufficiently completed. It is, then, highly expedient, particularly for those with weak stomachs, to eat but one species of food, so that it may be all digested and expelled at nearly the same period of time; that when the duodenal digestion has been fully established, the operations of the stomach shall have ceased.

1 See the review of my Pharmacologia, in the Journal of Science and the Arts, No. xxvii.

2 The custom of introducing cake after a rich entertainment is very ancient; but the cakes or "mustacea" of the Romans were very different compositions. They consisted of meal, aniseed, cummin, and several other aromatics: their object was to remove or prevent the indigestion which might occur after a feast. A cake was, therefore, constantly introduced, for such a purpose, after a marriage entertainment; and hence the origin of the " Bride Cake," which in modern times is an excellent invention for producing, instead of curing, indigestion.