analyses of American apples, a nutritive ratio of 33 was obtained. If it
were suggested that life should be sustained on apples alone, this small
quantity of proteid would be an insurmountable difficulty. As the addition
of nuts or other nutritious food sufficiently increases the proteid, no
objection can with justice be made against the use of fruit. A study of
our teeth, digestive organs and general structure, and of comparative
anatomy, points to fruits, nuts and succulent vegetables as our original
diet.

The potash and other salts of the organic acids in fruits tend to keep the
blood properly alkaline. Where there is a tendency to the deposition of
uric acid in the body, they hinder its formation. Citric, tartaric, malic
and other organic acids exist in fruits in combination with potash and
other bases, as well as in the free state. The free acids in fruits, when
eaten, combine with the alkalies in the intestinal tract, and are absorbed
by the body and pass into the blood, not as acids, but as neutral salts.
Here they are converted into potassium carbonate or some other carbonate.
Fruit acids never make the blood acid but the reverse. Fruit salts and
acids are antiscorbutic. Fruits have often proved of the greatest benefit
in illness. What is known as the grape cure has been productive of much
good. Lemons and oranges have also been of great benefit. Strawberries
have been craved for and have proved of the greatest advantage in some
extreme cases of illness when more concentrated food could not be endured.
Fruit is coming into greater use, especially owing to its better
distribution and lessened cost. Fruit is not as cheap as it should be, as
it can be produced in great abundance at little cost, and with
comparatively little labour. The price paid by the public greatly exceeds
the real cost of production. A very large proportion, often the greater
part of the cost to the consumer, goes in railway and other rates and in
middle-men's profits. It is commonly cheaper to bring fruit from over the