useless
for curative purposes.

_Coffee._

Coffee is a most powerful antiseptic, and therefore very useful as a
disinfectant. It has been used as a specific against cholera with
marvellous results, and is useful in all cases of intestinal
derangement. But only the pale-roasted varieties should be taken, as the
roasting develops the poisonous, irritating properties. There is
_always_ danger in the roasting of grains or berries on account of the
new substances that may be developed.

I do not recommend coffee as a beverage, but as a medicine.

_Date._

The nourishing properties of dates are well known. They are easily
digested, and for this reason are often recommended to consumptive
patients.

According to Dr. Fernie half a pound of dates and half a pint of new
milk will make a satisfying repast for a person engaged in sedentary
work.

_Elderberry._

The elderberry has fallen into neglect of late years, owing to the lazy
and disastrous modern habit of substituting the mineral drugs of the
chemist for the home-made vegetable remedies of our grandmothers.
Nevertheless, the elderberry is one of the most ancient and tried of
medicines, held in such great esteem in Germany that, according to the
German folk-lore, men should take off their hats in the presence of an
elder-tree. In Denmark there is a legend to the effect that the trees
are under the protection of a being known as the Elder-Mother, who has
been immortalised in one of the fairy tales of Hans Andersen.

The berries of the elder-tree are not palatable enough to be used as a
common article of food, but in the days when nearly every garden boasted
its elder-tree few housewives omitted to make elderberry wine in due
season.

It is not permitted to "food-reformers" to make "wine," but those
readers who are fortunate enough to possess an elder-tree might well
preserve the juice of the berries against winter coughs and colds.

_Preserved Fruit Juice._

The following is E. and B. May's recipe for preserving fruit juice. Put
the fruit into a preserving-pan, crush it and allow it to simmer slowly
until the juice is well drawn out. This will take about an hour. Press
out the juice and strain through a jelly-bag until quite clear. Put the
juice back into the pan, and to every quart add a quarter of a pound of
best cane sugar. Stir until dissolved. Put the juice into clean, dry
bottles. Stand the bottles in a pan of hot water, and when the latter
has