The Chemistry of Cookery

the skins and throwing the stripped potato into a supplementary saucepan or other vessel, in which they may be kept hot until the preparation is completed. As regards the nutritive value of the potato, it is well to understand that the common notion concerning its cheapness as an article of food is a fallacy. Taking Dr. Edward Smith’s figures, 760 grains of carbon and 24 grains of nitrogen are contained in 1 lb. of potatoes; 2½ lbs. of potatoes are required to supply the amount of carbon contained in 1 lb. of bread; and 3½ lbs. of potatoes are necessary for supplying the nitrogen of 1 lb. of bread. With bread at 1½_d._ per lb., potatoes should cost less than ½_d._ per lb. in order to be as cheap as bread for the hard-working man who requires an abundance of nitrogenous food. Potatoes contain 17 per cent. of carbon; oatmeal has 73 per cent. Taking nitrogenous matter also into consideration, 1 lb. of oatmeal is worth 6 lbs. of potatoes. My own observations in Ireland have fully convinced me of the wisdom of William Cobbett’s denunciation of the potato as a staple article of food. The bulk that has to be eaten, and is eaten, in order to sustain life, converts the potato feeder into a mere assimilating machine during a largo part of the day, and renders him unfit for any kind of vigorous mental or bodily exertion. If I were the autocratic Czar of Ireland, my first step towards the regeneration of the Irish people would be the introduction, acclimatising, and dissemination of the Colorado beetle, in order to produce a complete and permanent potato famine. The effect of potato feeding may be studied by watching the work of a potato-fed Irish mower or reaper who comes across to work upon an English farm where the harvestmen are fed in the farmhouse and the supply of beer is not excessive. The improvement of his working powers after two or three weeks of English feeding is comparable to that of a horse when fed upon corn, beans, and hay,