TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14902, 16 February 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Kindly Fruits. "Caution run mad " is the title under which an American critic discusses Metchnikoff's recent utterance in Paris about fruits. "Never eat uncooked food," urged this famous bacteriologist. "I plunge bananas into boiling water before eating. I always pass my knives, forks, and spoons through a Bunsen gas burner before using. Strawberries ought to be plunged, into boiling water , a few minutes before consuming. It sounds troublesome. But it helps to avoid,'the cancer germ." Even the paradisiacal food of the fruitarian is not to be risked without a cautionary reference to germs! Motchnikoff's predecessor, tho immortal Pasteur, ate quite through all tho cooked dishes at a dinner party, because they had been sterilised by heat.. But when grapes were served, then the master ostentatiously lifted his cluster, dipped it in a glass of water, and rinsed it thoroughly before he condescended to taste. Only the fact that, feeling thirsty shortly afterwards, he picked up the glass of rinsings and swallowed half of it, convinced his amused friends that genius itself has moments of weakness, and the precaution had not ;bcen so much science as "show off." As a matter of fact, Nature has taken some pains to make fruit fairly innocuous. The banana waite hermetically sealed inside a gorm-proof and waterproof skin. Oranges and lemons protect themselves by thick leathery peel pungent with irritating oils and bitter extractives. "Apples have not merely a germ-proof skin covering them, but that skin is coated with a peculiar fatty 1 or waxy substance which is waterproof and highly resistant. If washed, or even thoroughly polished upon a clean cloth, so that germs which may be present are either rubbed off or burnished into the surface of the skin, the apple may be peeled and eaten in a state of practically absolute purity." Plums, apricots, and peaches are not quite so advanced in their germ defences ; and strawberries, which in normal conditions are almost imperviousto germs, may have their surface so torn in handling and shipping that there is a slight risk, if Metchnikoff's dessert has far to travel. Says the American critic: "The certainty of impairment of health which will follow any marked restriction of fruit in' the dietary is at least fifty times as great as the possibility of infoction through this source." Boiled strawberries a la Metchnikoff, with Devonshire cream, may, however, be the Parisian's joy this coming June —and Parisian restaurants will probably know better than to add, like the too-up-to-date Manila establishment, at the foot of a menu, "Rest assured, O guests, that all whatever water be served upon these tables has been thoroughly fertilised!"

Mediaeval Jerry-building.

The current idea that in the olden days all arcbitecte were good architects, and all workmanship faithful is threatened with exposure as a fallacious generalisation. A writer in the "Engineering Record" points out th*at the great monuments of mediaeval times have survived simply because they were* the elite of the architecture of their

time. Tho others—and there were countless others —disappeared. ■ went •under in tbe struggle for existence, and so no one hears about them. "As to most of medueval work.*' the writer says, "it has gone to well-deserved decay long since. "Wo let our imaginations run riot in dreams of the faithful workman's loving artistry, forgetting the nameless and pestilent bunglora whose clumsy fingers wrought abomini>tions in wood and stone." An example of mediaeval jerry-building, a monument of bad design and worse execution, is St. Mary's Abbey in York, 'as viio a grade of rubble as any cheap contractor of the twentieth century could imagino.' . In comparing medi.fval with modern builders, one has to take much into consideration. Then all the architect needed to know was the technique of maronry. The rest was his art. To-day he must be familiar with masonry and concrete, Rtrneturnl eteel and sanitary plumbing, lighting and heating, electric wiring and acoustics. There was no complex commercialism in the Middle Ages to make the problem more intricate. Tho architect then did not have to plan for buying his stone, his eteol, his woodwork from different sources, he was not ''hounded by agents of patented devices, nor pestered by circulars of supplies offering him 'the usual architect's commission of — per cent." Also he was not bustled for time. A building might take fifty years to build, and no one minded. Tt might go on getting built for centuries, the architect's work being handed on to others, and yefc others.