The potash and other salts of the organic acids in fruits tend to keep the blood properly alkaline. Where there is a tendency to the deposition of uric acid in the body, they hinder its formation. Citric, tartaric, malic and other organic acids exist in fruits in combination with potash and other bases, as well as in the free state. The free acids in fruits, when eaten, combine with the alkalies in the intestinal tract, and are absorbed by the body and pass into the blood, not as acids, but as neutral salts. Here they are converted into potassium carbonate or some other carbonate. Fruit acids never make the blood acid but the reverse. Fruit salts and acids are antiscorbutic. Fruits have often proved of the greatest benefit in illness. What is known as the grape cure has been productive of much good. Lemons and oranges have also been of great benefit. Strawberries have been craved for and have proved of the greatest advantage in some extreme cases of illness when more concentrated food could not be endured. Fruit is coming into greater use, especially owing to its better distribution and lessened cost. Fruit is not as cheap as it should be, as it can be produced in great abundance at little cost, and with comparatively little labour. The price paid by the public greatly exceeds the real cost of production. A very large proportion, often the greater part of the cost to the consumer, goes in railway and other rates and in middle-men's profits. It is commonly cheaper to bring fruit from over the sea, including land carriage on either side, than it is to transport English produce from one part of our country to another. English homegrown fruit would be cheaper were it not for the difficulty of buying suitable land at a reasonable price, and the cost of transit. For the production of prime fruit there is a lack of sufficient intelligence, of scientific culture and co-operation. Vegetables--using the name in its popular sense--contain valuable saline constituents or salts. By the usual method of cooking a large proportion of the salts is lost. It is better to steam than to boil them. The fibrous portion of vegetables is not all digested, but it is useful in stimulating the peristaltic action of the bowels and lessening any tendency to constipation. Vegetables are more especially useful to non-vegetarians to correct the defects of their other food. The potato belongs to a poisonous order--the _Solanacæ_. There is a little alkaloid in the skin, but this is lost in the cooking. The eyes and sprouting portions contain the most and should be cut out.