n who fasts for a fortnight every spring, and gains, not loses, weight
during the process! He accounts for this by explaining that certain
stored up, undigested food particles come out and are digested while he
fasts. Whether this is the correct explanation I do not know, but the
fact remains, and it is not by any means a solitary case. Of course, the
majority of people lose weight when fasting, but this is very quickly
recovered. Now I do not think fasting should be undertaken recklessly,
but only under competent direction. But an excellent and safe substitute
for a fast is an exclusive fruit diet.

_Acute Illness._

The simplest and quickest method of recovering from attacks of acute
illness, fevers, inflammatory diseases, etc., is to rest quietly in bed
in a warm but well-ventilated room, and to take three meals a day of
fresh ripe fruit, grapes by preference. If the grapes are grown out of
doors and ripened in the sun so much the better. I have found from two
to three pounds of grapes per day sufficient. If there is thirst, barley
water flavoured with lemon juice should be taken between the meals.

PART II.--FOODS AND THEIR MEDICINAL USES

_Almond._

Almond soup is an excellent substitute for beef-tea for convalescents.
It is made by simply blanching and pounding a quarter of a pound of
sweet almonds with half a pint of milk, or vegetable stock. Another pint
of milk or stock is then to be added and the whole warmed. After this
add another pint and a half of stock if the soup is to be a vegetable
one, or rice water if milk has been used.

An emulsion of almonds is useful in chest affections. It is made by well
macerating the nuts in a nut butter machine, and mixing with orange or
lemon juice.

Almonds should always be blanched, that is, skinned by pouring boiling
water on the nuts and allowing them to soak for one minute, after which
the skins are easily removed. The latter possess irritating properties.

Bitter almonds should not be used as a food. They contain a poison
identical with prussic acid.

_Apple._

It is hardly possible to take up any newspaper or magazine now a days
without happening on advertisements of patent medicines whose chief
recommendation is that they "contain phosphorus." They are generally
very expensive, but the reader is assured that they are worth ten times
the price asked on account of their wonderful properties as nerve and
brain foods. The proprietors of these