Tomatoes may be considered upon the border line between vegetables and fruits. They are exceedingly useful in cases of intestinal congestion and torpidity of the liver. [Sidenote: The melon] The watermelon is very wholesome. The water is rich in sugar, while the pulp is composed of a soft fiber, which is a mild stimulant to the digestive and the excretory organs. Muskmelons and cantaloups are rich in natural sugar. They are non-acid, hence in harmony with nearly every known article of food. Considering their chemical neutrality and food value, they are about the best articles of diet in the watery or juicy class. The pumpkin and the squash, which are closely related to the melon, are of the genus cucurbita, and are divided into three species: 1 Pepo or pumpkin 2 Maxima or winter squash 3 Moschata, the pear-shaped squash With a slight variation of the water content, all of these varieties contain much the same elements of nutrition. However, the pumpkin is most important to the student of dietetics--(1) because of its food value, and (2) because of its prolific and universal growth. SUGARS AND SIRUPS It will aid the student greatly in comprehending this subject if he will review the chemical composition of sugars as given in Lesson IV under "Carbohydrates," Vol. I, p. 107.) Sugar in its various forms is a very prolific food product. It is the principal substance contained in nearly all fruits, but we shall confine our discussion here to the various sugars and sirups as they appear in commerce, freed from the other materials with which they are associated in nature. BEET-SUGAR [Sidenote: Origin of beet-sugar] Contrary to common belief, the greatest proportion of the world's supply of sugar comes from the sugar-beet. Sugar, which was once manufactured solely from the maple-sap and the sugar-cane, was discovered about one hundred years ago, to be present in beets. A very interesting historical fact is that the sugar-beet industry owes its origin to the efforts of Napoleon to supply France with home-produced sugar, because of the tariff or embargo laid upon foreign commerce. As a result of this effort all of Central Europe is now a heavy sugar-producing region. The method of production and the quantity of sugar contained in the sugar-beet have been so greatly improved that the present industry is quite able to compete with the production of sugar from cane in the tropical regions. Crude sugar from sugar-beets is very unpalatable, but the refined or crystallized form of beet sugar is chemically identical with cane-sugar. [Sidenote: Cane-sugar]