IN PRAISE OF THE ONION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 63

IN PRAISE OF THE ONION.

Many people turn ivilh disgust from the suspicion ot the onion in anj 1 " dish at table, whether it bo puree, foup, hievr, salad, or the bulb plain boiled. Yet, it Las been stated, the onion should be reckoned Avitli as a dietary friend and nob an enemy. A hot and keen-biting, ill-savoured friend it may be, but one altogether splendid in its operations, cleansing and opening the myriad mimne sewer-Trays, in their encasing sheaths of skin, and thrusting oul through their proper channels, the pores and other outlets of the body, the foul matters held by the blood. Thus, as a skin tonic, and a restorer o£ Tsatme's finest, fairest tints to the faded flesh, it is one of the best com-plexion-revivers in existence. Those "who eat the onion may depend on soon possessing boft and supple fckin, with firm and wholesome iie?h beneath, and pores, freed from acne, working easily and well. Eruptions will disappear under the germ-killing intiuence of the lily -bulb of the kitchen ; and there will be no need for the eaters of ifc to fear plague or infectious sickness. To microbe, geim, bacillus, whether of the insidious influenza, smallpox, or any fever, the kitchen lily is a determined foe ; disease germs cannot live in its presence or thrive in human blood charged with its juice. _ In remote country villi?es one sometimes sees an old custom which, in its essence, is wiss, though the performers do not know its why or wherefore ; as their forbears did, sc do they. This is to place plates full of pliced onion at the fk!c of any bed or coffin wherein lies the 'body of a person dead of infectious disease. This good and shrewd practice was oased on Che observation of~the blackening of the onion and practical experience of the usefuliness of the habit, not on (scientific Lnowle&ge. But the floating germs were attracted" 5 -to that blackening onion, and settled on the vegetable deaii-snare thickly, the result being the onion's discoloration and the great purification of the sir in the deat'h-chamnlbei. The story is true of a hou«-e wherein ropes of onions intended for sale were bung escaping a smallpox epidemic which attacked the neighbouring houses. The onion is a killer of germs already taken into the blocd. I'he white corpuscles in the vital current are rendered strong by its presence, and are enabled to enclose and absorb the microbe that else would cautc disease, perhaps death. Besides being able to revitalise, purify, and refresh the bloodcurrent, the onion is a most powerful stimulator and cleanser of the stomach and liver, its presence enabling these two organs to do their work far better, by relieving them of disease particles, and by acting as a strong tonic. Mark the efiect on the membrane of the moufrh when a slice of raw onion is 'masticated. Instantly the channels of the salivary -fluid are opened, the mouth 'waters," and pours into the mouth-cavity a perfect flood of Nature's first digestive juice, charged with the powerful pt-yaline that can convert all starchy substances into the sugar which alone the tissues can absorb. Even the tear glands of the eyes pour out their waters at the approach of the keen onion, not waiting for any contact ; and so it will not be a matter for wonder that the soft, delicate membrane of the stomach coatings should flush pink and be excited into strong action at the entrance of the 'biting bulb, Which is no sooner received therein than, pll the gastric glands are set briskly at <york, pouring, out the second digestive juice that converts all nitrogenous matter into the peptones that the tissues must absorb. No stimulus acts more strongly on the gastric glands than Doctor 'Onion's juice, and nothing cleans the .stomach better. The liver also, feeling Jhe iuflupnce, pours oul it? bile, which mingles \vith the pancreatic juice in the hues tine 'beyond the stomach proper, to act upon all faLs and oils which are dealt with there.

Thither goes the fine volatile oil contained in the onion's juice — the first cause of the great dislike to the valuable food. For the? bile and pancreatic juice together are able to emulsify all iats contained in the thick chyme that enters the stomach, so converting it into the thinner milky chyle that can be absoi'bed by way of the little lacteal channels directly' into the blood for further conveyance into the general circulation. But the tiny globules of the volatile oil of the onion are so fine that very many of them escipu the emulsification that awaits all fats beyond the stomach glands, and they are conveyed intact with all their purifying power into the blood-current, in company with the frothy, milky chyle in which they are afloat. Through the skin passages, even into the air passages of the 'lungs, and everywhere, penetrate tnese little oil globules, the mighty slayers of all noxious humours in the body, and the cause of the peculiar smell that accompanies the breath 01 the onion-eater.

No one likes to smell of onions, and hera in lies the objection to the buib, even in tho estimation of the most rabid seeker after the beauty health 'brings. Such a smell is not only disagreeable, but is supposed to indicate a c&arse appetite, to suggest ad manner of nasty "tastes both in eating and m manners. " it is only reckoned fitting that ploughboyd and clodhoppers should eat oi oniona; dainty ladies never. Yet the teeth that con work upon the onion are teeth secure from attack oi fatal fungi forms that are the cause ot quick decay ; the eaters .are ssie from toothache gripe or neuralgic yams, and teeth already m the clutcn oi ills may have the decay arre.sted for a long winle by the timely use ot the aU-po«-eiiul bulb. What teetii are whiter and stronger than those of the Itaiian or Spanish, peasant? Yet a great onion c" tiic mild type that grows in the warm southern lands mil often form the sole dinner of these people of ro'buhi, health and ivory teeth, who do not mind either the pungent taste or ths strong resurcanc sii-^li exhaling irom the vapour of their breath. For lovely teeth like theirs one ought reully to be willing to do more than cci Allium eepa, the teeth-preserver.

is one given to lying aw.>.ke long o~ niglita? Then again r-i attire's compact •medicine chest is at hand Avhere Allium cepa 'is, and the lily bulb comes forward as a strong soporific, a sleep-giver. For by means of the abundant .phosphorus, the ir<=e phosphoiic add, contained within its jiacy tissues ,the onion is> a splendid nervine thai can calm and fcooUie the harassed nerves, giving peace and nourishment to the jaded .biam, and, by so doing, calming the irritation into rest and inducing sleap. By tins good action on the nerves it is that the onion is reckoned so useful in neuralgia wherever that distressing malady occurs.

The onion has also great powex- in breaking up an -incipient cold, as well as in ridding the system of a cold already upon it. For it is a splendid warmth-giver to the 'olood when eaten raw, and can impart .suck a glow of heat to the vital current as no othei food .substance can give. Of course Ihi.s is due to the hot acridity of the bulb, {he cook will say. But it is partly due to the very abundant carbon which the onion carries in its substance. This, carbon is chemicaily of the same nature as the coal we put in our cgrates, .and its action on the bedy is practically the same a& the action of the coal in the fireplace, since the carbon of the onion fires by natural combustion ,so &oon as it comes in contacs with the oxygen in the blood ; hence the great heat evolved which strengthens the (system and aids it to drive out colds. \Jatarrhal jjatients derive enormous ibenefi^; irom the onion, which, during the influenza epidemic the country lately passed through, was recommended )>y anedical .men as a good 'preventive and curer of the malady ; though many patients refused to touch the bulb owing to its unpleasant small, preferring to leb the disease run its course and

to take the risk of succeeding weakness. — Dhambers's Journal.