“But I can paint such a picture of the trouble they store up for the
 future if they persist in excessive fruit eating!”

 “Never mind about persisting and storing up for the future.  I punish
 excess in fruit eating as in everything else by prompt discomfort and
 pain.”

 “But what do you know about oxalic acid?”

 “Enough to avoid it.  Like every other poison it is repugnant to me.”

 “Yet fruit which is so nice in the mouth may ferment in the intestines
 and form that very poison.  Then what are you going to do about it?”

 “Take care that not too much fruit is eaten another time.”

 “But in the meantime the oxalic acid already formed must be
 neutralised at once.”

 “No, no!  It would be a pity to do that.  Oxalic acid is the latest
 fashion.  What would your patients do without it?  And what would you do
 without your patients?”

“It must be neutralised at once.  It can only be neutralised at the cost of abstracting lime from the system.  Result:  oxalate of lime, forming calculus, or ‘stone,’ which you don’t want, and tissues depleted of lime which you do want.”

“So you get your patients after all.  In fact, having ’neutralised their oxalic acid’ to escape you, they come back to you with two diseases instead of one.  It seems to me you are a very profitable investment, Mr Pseudo-Science.”

 “Really, Mr Taste, you would not, I presume, have me suppress the
 truth simply because it happens to be profitable?”

 “But is it the truth?  What proof have you?”

 “I presume you are ignorant of the fact that animals have died with
 all the symptoms of oxalic acid poisoning, simply through taking too
 much sugar.”

 “What kind of animals?  You chose such as are used to taking shop sugar
 as part of their ordinary food, of course?”

 “Well—­no; not in that form.  The subjects of the experiment were
 rabbits.”

 “Ah!  And from these you draw deductions about man who has been eating
 artificial sugar for ages.  How like a vivisectionist!  But what doses
 of sugar did the rabbits get?”

 “About one-fortieth of the body-weight.”

“That would be as if a man of 150 lbs. weight should take 33/4 lbs. sugar at a meal!  And since it is excessive fruit you are warning us against, can you tell me how many pounds of fruit—­say, apples—­one must take in order to get that amount of sugar in a day?  No less than sixty pounds.  Really your warning seems a little superfluous.”

“It is all very well for you to scoff, Mr Taste, but if it were not for me you would know nothing about the latest diseases.  I really believe you would be content to go right through life without knowing that you had a duodenum or an appendix.”

 “Quite” assented Taste cheerfully.