, a dozen or more
every day with the rind, when in less than a week I observed a large red
flake in my urine, which, on a slight touch, crumbled into the finest
powder, and this was the same for several succeeding days. It is ten
years since I made the experiment, and I have been quite free from any
complaints of that nature ever since. The pears were of the small sort
and full of knots."

_Pea Nut._

The pea nut--or monkey nut--is especially recommended as a cure for
indigestion. I have not been able to find out why. As a matter of fact
it is such a highly-concentrated food that, unless taken in very small
quantities, it is liable to upset weak digestions. I suspect the secret
to lie in the chewing. Almost any kind of nut will cure the habitual
indigestion induced by "bolting" the food, if only it be chewed until it
is liquid. Hard biscuits will do instead of nuts, although an uncooked
food like the nut is the better. But whatever is taken must be
"Fletcherised," that is, chewed and chewed and chewed until it is all
reduced to liquid.

Pea nuts contain a good deal of oil, and for this reason are recommended
for consumptives. They are the cheapest nuts to buy, for the reason that
they are not really nuts but beans.

_Pine-apple._

Pine-apple juice is the specific for diphtheria. This seems to have
been first brought to the notice of Europeans by the fact that negroes
living round about the swamps of Louisiana were observed to use it with
great success. A writer who records this says: "The patient should be
forced to swallow the juice. This fluid is of so pungent and corrosive a
nature that it cuts out the diphtheria mucous and causes it to
disappear."

The above direction looks satisfactory enough on paper, and it is
eminently cheering to read of how the pine-apple juice causes the
diphtheria mucous to disappear, but anyone who knows anything about
diphtheria knows that to "force" a diphtheria patient to swallow is more
easily written about than accomplished. Fortunately I have been able to
obtain the following explicit directions from an experienced nurse and
mother:

The pine-apple should be cut up and well pounded in a mortar. The juice
must then be pressed out and strained through well-scalded muslin. The
patient's mouth must be washed out with warm water. The juice may now be
given with a silver teaspoon. It is possible that the patient may be
quite unable to swallow any of it. If this be so, the juic