In larger cities, fresh vegetables are in the markets the year around, but if they are raised in greenhouses, or in any way forced, they lack the matured flavor and they also lack the iron which the rays of the sun give. If raised in the south and shipped for a distance, they are not fresh and they do not have as good an effect upon the system as when fresh and fully matured by the sun. All greens, as spinach, chard, dandelions and beet tops, as previously stated, contain iron and build red blood corpuscles. It is well, then, to eat freely of fresh vegetables in their season, even though they do not appreciably build tissue or furnish energy. By their effect upon the blood, the kidneys, skin, and intestines, they make sluggish vital organs more efficient. Tomatoes and rhubarb are often, and with reason, classed under fruits. * * * * * [Sidenote: Fruits] Technically speaking, fruits include all plant products which bear or contain a seed. They are valuable for their acids and organic salts—citrates, malates, or tartrates of potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium. In the juices of citrous fruits, are citrates of above minerals. The fruit juices are readily absorbed and carried at once to the liver, where the sodium, magnesium, and potassium are released and the acids oxidized and changed to carbonates. They increase the alkalinity of the blood. These alkalis are soon eliminated through the kidneys, which accounts for the diuretic effect of fruits. The seeds in the small fruits are not digested, but they serve the purpose of increasing intestinal peristalsis and of assisting the movement of the contents of the intestines. The skin and the fibre of fruits also assist the intestines in this way, just as the fibre in vegetables does. Fruits may be classified into acid and sweet fruits. Under _acid fruits_ are the citrous group—lemons, limes, grape fruit, oranges, cranberries, gooseberries, whortleberries, pineapples, currants, and rhubarb—if rhubarb is to be classed as a fruit. There has been a commonly accepted theory that where a blood test shows evidence of too much uric acid, acid fruits are to be avoided, but the reverse is true. It has been fully demonstrated that the use of acid fruits increases the alkalinity,—or neutralizes the acids in the blood. In case of an excess of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, lemon, or citrous fruits are valuable about half an hour before a meal as they decrease the secretion of the hydrochloric acid into the stomach. Where hydrochloric acid is limited, acids are given after a meal to supplement the deficient amount. The sweetening of acid fruits does not detract from the value of the acids or of organic salts. All acid fruits stimulate the action of the kidneys and the skin,—particularly lemons, limes, grape fruit, and oranges, and wherever the kidneys and skin are not sufficiently active, these fruits should be eaten freely.