I have been told by an American lady that in the fatherland of potatoes, as well as in their adopted country, they are always boiled or steamed in their jackets: that American cooks, like those of Ireland, would consider it an outrage to cut off the protecting skin of the potato before cooking it; that they are more commonly mashed there than here, and that the mashing is done by rapidly removing 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, after feeding for a year on grass only. My strictures on the potato do not apply to them as used in England, where the prevailing vice of our ordinary diet is that it is too carnivorous. The potatoes we eat with our meat serve to dilute it, and supply the farinaceous element in which flesh is deficient. The reader may have observed that most of the starch foods are derived from the roots or stems of plants. Many others are used in tropical climates where little labour is demanded or done, and, therefore, but little nitrogenous food required. FOOTNOTE: