FRUIT AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 53, 1 May 1895, Page 2

FRUIT AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE.

' Nothing is more essential to method in (learning than frequent reiteration, and it is, therefore, needless to plead excuses in seeking thus to impress even the elementary facts of sanitary science. It might be supposed, says the “Lancet,” that every one understood the importance of observing particular care in the selection of a summer dietary, especially as regards fruit. Hardly any question of domestic management is either more vital or more elementary. Yet error continually arises in this connection in the simplest way. A few days ago a child died soon after eating strawberries. Why ? Because the fruit had been purchased two days px-eviously, and, as was only to be expected when eaten, was in a state of decay. It is impossible to resist the impression that neglect had|something to do with the sad result iu this instance. Luscious fruits particularly liable to putrefective changes, audj'suchjtbrifty processes as exposing to a i cold and dry air, spreading out and the like, suffice only to postpone decay forj a brief period. Wo cannot do better than point to the incident above mentioned in order to remind the vendor and the pm> chaser alike that* freshness is the only guarantee of safety when any succulent fruit forms an article of diet. We have not forgotten that another hardly less serious danger of the season awaits those who indulge in fruit which is under ripe. In this case taste as well a judgmentjeommonly interposes a caution, the importance of which can be hardly exaggerated. Yet here, also, the consequences of neglect have too often been sadly apparent.