Pare, scrub and cut into small pieces, 1 lb. of artichokes and put immediately into a pan with a pint of water or milk and water. Boil till soft, then rub through a wire sieve, using a wooden spoon. Put back in pan, add a little more water, a little chopped parsley, and a small piece of butter (or nut butter). Bring to the boil, stirring well; stir in a tablespoonful of Pinekernel Cream ("P.R." or Mapleton's), and serve at once. LEEK AND CELERY SOUP. Put four well-cleansed medium-sized leeks (cut up small), the outer parts of a head of celery (chopped), a quart of water and 2 oz. unpolished Japan rice, into a pan and simmer for two hours. Rub through wire sieve, return to pan, bring to the boil, and serve. _This soup is not so much nutritive as cleansing and antiseptic._ TASTE OR THEORY? FRUIT AND THE OXALIC ACID BOGEY. Many and varied are the creeds of Health Reformers, but all may be included within two main camps. And the opposing battle-cries are Instinct _versus_ Intellect, Taste _versus_ Theory, _a priori versus a posteriori_, Motives _versus_ Purposes. Some overlapping and confusion of creed may be found in both camps, but in the main one is filled with lovers of Nature, the other with devotees of Science. "We believe in simplicity," cries the Nature-lover from the meadow where he is taking a sun-bath; "you are so complex, so artificial." "We believe in being 'sensible,'" retorts the devotee of Science from the cabinet where he is taking an electric light bath, "you are so extreme." "Not extreme--consistent. Your treatment varies every month as the decrees of 'Science' change." "But your treatment varies every minute as the wind and clouds change. I can keep mine constant with mathematical accuracy, or vary the light to a nicety by pressing a button." And so also is it with regard to diet. The person who talks learnedly about germs and calories (though he never saw a germ or measured a calorie in his life) will be found in the same camp with the electric light advocate, while this other who cultivates a taste in harmony with Nature by consuming what he likes best of her unaltered products, he is found arm in arm with the sun-bather. But Science will by no means allow him to eat his uncooked food in peace. "If we all adopt _that_ diet," her pseudo-disciples cry, "what is to become of the potatoes?" Now, with regard to uncooked foods, it would seem that as little fault can be found with ripe fruit in its natural state as with any article of diet. Yet even here "Science" holds up a warning hand and is succeeding in scaring people away from one of the most harmless, most wholesome and most neglected of foods.