e liable to create a disturbance whenever taken together.

Partially decayed, stale, and over-ripe, as well as unripe fruit, should
never be eaten. According to M. Pasteur, the French scientist, all
fruits and vegetables, when undergoing even incipient decay, contain
numerous germs, which, introduced into the system, are liable to produce
disturbances or disease. Perfectly fresh, ripe fruit, with proper
limitations as to quantity and occasion, may be taken into a normal
stomach with impunity at any season.

It is especially important that all fruits to be eaten should not only
be sound in quality, but should be made perfectly clean by washing if
necessary, since fruit grown near the ground is liable to be covered
with dangerous bacteria (such as cause typhoid fever or diphtheria),
which exist in the soil or in the material used in fertilizing it.

Most fruits, properly used, aid digestion either directly or indirectly.
The juicy ones act as dilutents, and their free use lessens the desire
for alcohol and other stimulants. According to German analysts, the
apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other fruit,
or than any vegetable. In warm weather and in warm climates, when foods
are not needed for a heat-producing purpose, the diet may well consist
largely of fruits and succulent vegetables, eaten in combination with
bread and grains. In case of liver and kidney affections, rheumatism,
and gout, the use of fruit is considered very beneficial by many
scientific authorities.

To serve its best purpose, raw fruit should be eaten without sugar or
other condiments, or with the addition of as small a quantity as
possible.

It is a disputed question whether fruits should begin or end the meal;
but it is generally conceded by those who have given the matter
attention, that fruit eaten at the beginning of a meal is itself the
more readily digested, and aids in the digestion of other foods, since
fruits, like soups, have the property of stimulating the flow of the
digestive juices. Something, however, must depend upon the character of
the fruit; oranges, melons, and like juicy fruits, are especially useful
as appetizers to begin the meal, while bananas and similar fruits agree
better if taken with other food, so as to secure thorough mixture with
saliva. This is true of all fruits, except such pulpy fruits as
strawberries, peaches, melons, grapes, and oranges. It is often
erroneously asserted that fruit as d