Women and Foods

Celery.

Celery is almost a specific for rheumatism, gout, and nervous indigestion. The most useful plants for this purpose are small, not too rapidly grown nor very highly manured.
It may be eaten raw, or steamed, or in soup. Strong celery broth flavoured with parsley is excellent.

Cresses.

All the cresses are anti-scorbutic, that is, useful against the scurvy. The ancient Greeks also believed them to be good for the brain.
The ordinary "mustard and cress" of our salads is good for rheumatic patients, while the water-cress is valuable in cases of tubercular disease. Anæmic patients may also eat freely of it on account of the iron it contains. Care should be taken, however, from whence it is procured, as a disease peculiar to sheep but communicable to man may be carried by it. It should not be gathered from streams running through meadows inhabited by sheep.

Chestnut.

Chestnuts, when cooked, are valuable food for persons with weak digestive powers. They should be put on the fire in a saucepan of cold water and cooked for twenty minutes from the time the water first boils. John Evelyn, F.R.S., a seventeenth century writer, says of them: "They are a lusty and masculine food for rustics at all times, and of better nourishment for husbandmen than cole and rusty bacon, yea, or beans to boot."

Cinnamon.

Cinnamon is a very old-fashioned remedy for soothing the pain of internal or unbroken cancer. One prescription is the following: Take1 lb. of Ceylon sticks. Simmer in a closed vessel with 1 quart of water until the liquid is reduced to 1 pint. Pour off without straining, and shake or stir well before taking. Take half a pint every twenty-four hours. Divide into small doses and take regularly.
Cinnamon has a powerful influence over disease germs, but care must be taken to obtain it pure. It is often adulterated with cassia.
Cinnamon tea may be taken with advantage in cases of consumption, influenza, and pneumonia.

Cocoanut.

Cocoanut is an old and very efficacious remedy for intestinal worms of all kinds. A tablespoonful of freshly-ground cocoanut should be taken at breakfast until the cure is complete. The dessicated cocoanut is 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 come to the boil allow the bottles to remain in the boiling water for fifteen minutes. The idea is to bring the juice inside the bottles to boiling point just before sealing up, but not to boil it. See that the bottles are full. Cork immediately on taking out of the pan, and then seal up. To seal mix a little plaster of Paris with water and spread it well over the cork. Let it come a little below the cork so as to exclude all air.

The juice of the elderberry is famous for promoting perspiration, hence its efficacy in the cure of colds. Two tablespoonfuls should be taken at bed-time in a tumbler of hot water.
The juice of the elderberry is excellent in fevers, and is also said to promote longevity.