It has been stated that every complete diet must contain some potash-vegetable or fruit, and the following is a list of such articles of diet. (Table V.) They differ, however, greatly in wholesomeness and nutritive value, as will be seen by the analysis table. (Chapter II (The Relationship Between Food, Heat, And Motion)., Table I.)

The points to be especially borne in mind to promote the digestibility of fruits, are, 1, to reject the skins, pips, and stones, and the cellular and woody materials such as form the "core" of apples and pears, and the segments of oranges and lemons. 2. In all the nut tribe, to reduce them to a pulp or to meal before they are swallowed. Thus, chestnuts baked quite to a meal are readily digested, and nuts beaten to a pulp in a mortar form a highly nutritious and digestible food, whereas both are exceedingly indigestible in their natural condition.

With vegetables, great differences exist between such as may be classed as "green vegetables," - containing large quantities of elastic, fibrous, and woody tissue, which are quite indigestible, - and the various sorts containing much starchy matter, which require thorough cooking to burst the cells of the starch and make it digestible. (See Special Recipes.) The latter are especially liable to be swallowed in lumps, the outside of which may be soft but the centre hard and quite impenetrable by the digestive fluids. To prevent this they should be crushed with a fork, a precaution which will enable many delicate persons to digest potatoes, carrots, and the like, who could not otherwise touch them with safety.

Table V

List of Potash Vegetables and Fruits.

Vegetables.

Fruits.

Asparagus.

Apples.

Broad Beans.

Almonds.

Brocoli.

Chestnuts.

Carrot.

Cherries.

Cabbage.

Currants.

Celery.

Dates.

Cauliflower.

Figs.

Cress.

Grapes.

Cucumber.

Gooseberries.

Endive.

Lemons.

French Beans.

Nuts and Filberts.

Lettuce.

Oranges.

Mustard (green).

Pears.

Mushrooms.

Pine Apples.

Onions.

Plums.

Parsnip.

Prunes.

Peas (green).

Raisins.

Potato.

Raspberries.

Radish.

Strawberries.

Rhubarb.

Walnuts.

Spinach.

Turnip.

Turnip Tops.

Watercress.

In addition, however, to the question of actual digestibility, both vegetables and fruits may disagree from the essential oils which they contain, and upon which they depend in a great measure for their distinctive flavours. This kind of disagreement is of the least serious kind, consisting rather in unpleasant eructations than in the more distressing and dangerous symptoms due to masses of undissolved food. Stomachs have idiosyncrasies in this respect which must rather be individualised than classified. It may be stated, however, that when one species of the brassicaciae or cabbage tribe is found to disagree, the whole tribe will be also apt to do so, and this more and more in proportion as the essential oil is more abundant. For this reason they agree better when young than old, although this is also due to the smaller proportion of woody fibre and other indigestible tissue which they then contain.

After all, - cooking, carving, cutting up, mastication, and careful rejection of indigestible parts while eating, will enable persons with weak digestions to vastly enlarge their usual list of permissible articles of diet, both animal and vegetable; and it is to these precautions that I would especially direct their attention, for it is of the highest importance to avoid unnecessarily limiting the variety of food allowed to all persons, but especially to those of poor appetites and troublesome digestions.

Monotonous, uninteresting meals, depress the spirits and are subversive of appetite, digestion and nutrition. (See Chapter VI (Some Principles Of Diet In Disease).)

Finally, nobody should take meals in solitude. Society, merry talking and laughter, are wonderful aids to appetite and digestion, and promote all the functions necessary to healthy nutrition. (See Meals, p. 40.)