manifestations of a skin disease. But in the latter event the fruit is
merely assisting Nature to throw the disease out and off more quickly,
while in the former case the real cause lies not in the fruit but in
some nerve irritant, tea, for example, the effects of which are more
acutely felt under the new _régime_. The nervous system tends to become
much more sensitive upon a vegetarian, especially fruitarian, diet, and
people often attribute their increased nervousness and irritability to
the diet when it is simply that they now react more quickly to poisons.
This is not a bad thing, on the contrary, it shows that the system has
become more alert. Under the old _régime_ we tend to store up poisons
and impurities in the body, but the effect of a vegetable diet,
especially when united with the use of distilled water, is to cause all
our diseases and impurities to be expelled outwards and downwards. Tea
is a slow poison, and so is coffee except under exceptional conditions
when it is used as a medicine, and then it should always be
pale-roasted.

Fruit should always be eaten at the beginning of a meal. Again, when the
diet consists of a mixture of cooked and uncooked foods, the uncooked
should always be eaten first. Also when the meal consists of two
courses, a sweet and a savoury dish, sufferers from indigestion should
try taking the sweet course first. I have known several cases where this
simple expedient has resulted in a complete cessation of the discomfort
of which the patient complained.


_A Pioneer of Food Remedies._

The pioneer, in England, of the treatment of all sorts and conditions of
disease by means of a vegetable (chiefly fruit) dietary was Dr. Lambe, a