A "lump of figs" laid on the boil of King Hezekiah, as recorded in 2 Kings xx. 7, brought about that monarch's recovery. The figs used were doubtless ripe figs, not the dried figs of our grocers.
"This fruit," says Dr. Fernie, "is soft, easily digested, and corrective of strumous disease." The large blue fig may be grown in England, in the milder parts and under a warm wall. The fresh figs were rarely seen at one time outside of the large "high-class" fruit shops, but for the last year or two I have seen them peddled in the streets of London like apples and oranges in due season.
Green figs (not unripe) were commonly eaten by Roman gladiators, which is surely a sufficient tribute to the fruit's strength-giving qualities.
The best way of preparing dried figs for eating is to wash them very quickly in warm water, and steam for twenty minutes or until tender.
Grape.
The special value of the grape lies in the fact that it is a very quick repairer of bodily waste, the grape sugar being taken immediately into the circulation without previous digestion. For this reason is grape juice the best possible food for fever patients, consumptives, and all who are in a weak and debilitated condition. The grapes should be well chewed, the juice and pulp swallowed, and the skin and stones rejected.
In countries where the grape cure is practised, consumptive patients are fed on the sweeter varieties of grape, while those troubled with liver complaints, acid gout, or other effects of over-feeding, take the less sweet kinds.
Dr. Fernie deprecates the use of grapes for the ordinary gouty or rheumatic patient, but with all due deference to that learned authority, I do not believe the fruit exists that is not beneficial to the gouty person. One of the most gouty and rheumatic people I know, a vegetarian who certainly never over-feeds himself, derives great benefit from a few days' almost exclusive diet of grapes.
Cream of tartar, a potash salt obtained from the crust formed upon bottles and casks by grape juice when it is undergoing fermentation in the process of becoming wine, is often used as a medicine. It has been cited as an infallible specific in cases of smallpox, but I do not recommend its use, as it probably gets contaminated with other substances during the process of manufacture. In any case its value cannot be compared with the fresh, ripe fruit. I have little doubt but that an exclusive diet of grapes, combined with warmth, proper bathing, and the absence of drugs, would suffice to cure the most malignant case of smallpox.
Sufferers from malaria may use grapes with great benefit. For this purpose the grapes, with the skins and stones, should be well pounded in a mortar and allowed to stand for three hours. The juice should then be strained off and taken. Or persons with good teeth may eat the grapes, including the skins and stones, if they thoroughly macerate the latter.