Page:Treatise on Cultivation of the Potato.djvu/21

 "one-fourth of the children born die within the first year, and half between fifteen and twenty, and that three-fourths are dead within the space of fifty years." Having inquired of a very eminent French physiologist, M. Dutrochet, who is resident in the department of Indre, the cause of this extraordinary mortality, he stated it to be their food, which consisted chiefly of bread; and of which he calculated every adult peasant to eat two pounds a day. And he added, without having received any leading question from me, or in any degree knowing my opinion upon the subject, that if the peasantry of his country would substitute (which they could do) a small quantity of animal food with potatoes instead of so much bread, they would live much longer, and with much better health. Lam inclined to pay much deference to M. Dutrochet's opinion; for he combines the advantages of a regular medical education with great acuteness of mind, and I believe him to be as well acquainted with the general laws of organic life as any person living: and I think his opinion deserves some support from the well known fact, that the duration of human life has been much greater in England during the last sixty years than in the preceding period of the same duration. Bread made of wheat, when taken in large quantities, has probably, more than any other article of food in use in this country, the effect of overloading the alimentary canal; and the general practice of the French physicians points out the prevalence of diseases thence arising amongst their patients.

I do not, however, think or mean to say, that potatoes alone are proper food for any human being: but I feel confident, that four ounces of meat, with as large a quantity of good potatoes as would wholly take away the sensation of hunger, would afford, during twenty-four hours, more efficient nutriment than could be derived from bread in any quantity, and might be obtained at much less expense.

I now proceed to give an account of the result of the experiment above-mentioned, which, I hope, will be found sufficiently interesting to attract the attention of the Members of this Society. It has been proved by many other persons, as well as by myself, that if all the blossoms of a potato plant be picked off, as soon as they become visible, the quantity of tubers will be considerably increased? particularly if the variety be one which produces seeds; and I have shown that the cause why early varieties of the potato do not afford