commonly beautiful physiognomical cast: this last is an effect which is singularly remarkable in countries where fruits and farinaceous substances enter most extensively into the diet of the people. All which advantages or effects must naturally be expected to result from a diet which is radically proper, beyond what must be the consequences of one which is radically improper.

The health of the public must always be greatly dependant on the goodness and purity of bread, it being the chief article of our common food, and that which, when properly combined with other substances, is the most wholesome and nourishing. Bread made with flour and water, with sufficient yest to render it light, beyond which it should contain nothing, has a sweetness which is extremely agreeable and gratifying to the palate; but this property is entirely destroyed by the common practice of mixing mineral and other substances with it, by which its nutricious virtue is greatly deteriorated. I am informed, and it appears upon good authority, that the common bread of London now generally contains a considerable portion of potatoes. This is most improper, as many persons of weak digestion cannot make use of such bread without experiencing great inconvenience; and there are many other very serious objections to such a deteriorating mixture.

One of the most efficient steps which could possibly be taken towards the improvement of the health of the community, would be that of the adoption and maintenance of the most certain measures which could be called into operation for the purpose of supplying a pure and wholesome bread.

The integrity of the dietetic system, though strange to say, so lightly and so little thought of, is of more real importance than any thing else with which man is concerned. The health of the body depends upon it, and in the absence of health, what is man!

CHAPTER III.

OF VEGETABLES, AND VEGETABLE CONDIMENTS.

ALTHOUGH Vegetables, by the artificial application of heat in cookery, are rendered much more suitable for human food, they are still deficient in the qualities essential for that purpose; for the correction of which deficiency, great care is necessary in order to avoid falling into the error of rendering them more unsuitable, by the addition of substances of an unwholesome nature.

The natural effect of vegetables on the human constitution must be the production of a tendency to grossness, and a less pure state of the body. It must be observed that the earth, in its passage into the corporeal substance of the vegetable, undergoes a process of refinement; and the corporeal substance of the vegetable, in passing into its fruit, undergoes a further process of refinement. Therefore it is desirable that man's food should consist of the last product of the vegetable, as being the purest.

There are some vegetables in common use, which,

The

of the

potatoe.

by their nature and properties, would appear to be entirely unfitted for human food. As to whether or not it may be necessary to continue the use of them poisonous nature we have nothing, here, to say, our discourse being confined to their suitability for that purpose. The potatoe is the most important of these: it belongs to the poisonous nightshade class of plants. The members of that exceedingly malignant family of plants have been, by botanists, arranged in the following order, under the common title of solanum ; and which title has been bestowed on them from the circumstance of their giving ease to the human body by the loan of their stupifying qualities.

Solanum dulcamara, commonly called woodynightshade. Thirty of the berries of this plant having been, by way of experiment, given to a dog, it, in a short time, became mad, and died in the course of three hours.

Solanum fœtidum, or thorn-apple; is endowed with a powerful narcotic poison.

Solanum lethale, or deadly nightshade; like the above, is strongly imbued with a powerful narcotic poison.

Solanum lycopersicum, or love-apple; its fruit is said to be one of the ingredients of almost all the soups and sauces of the Spaniards and Portuguese; it is also less extensively used in this and other countries. Its ripe fruit, when tasted, is intolerably disgusting to the palate, which is not apt to recoil before substances good as food for the body.

Solanum melongena, or mala insana, or mad apple; like the preceding, is used in its native countries for soups and sauces. Its appropriate

name, however, is not significant of the propriety of making such use of it.

Solanum nigrum, or garden nightshade; is a plant whose properties are highly deleterious.

Solanum sanctum, Palestine nightshade; is much eaten by the Egyptians.

Solanum tuberosum, the potatoe plant.

Solanum vesicarium, or winter cherry; is sometimes medicinally employed in dropsical diseases.

These plants closely resemble each other in their appearance, and also in their nature and properties; and are therefore known under the common name of solanum; but their deleterious properties are not equally developed in all their parts.

It cannot reasonably be supposed that any part of a plant of a species naturally poisonous to man, can be by him, used as food without detriment to his constitution. And although to superficial observation, persons may seem to thrive on potatoes, the existing amount of infirmity gives reason to suspect that they do, by long use, occasion disease, by the slow accumulation of their poison in the system; which is generally attributed to other causes, on account of the universal practice of making use of that kind of food.

It is certain that very many persons cannot take them, even in small quantities with other food, without experiencing flatulency, indigestion, and other distressing symptoms. I make it an invariable rule to recommend delicate patients who suffer from dyspeptic diseases, to abstain entirely from eating potatoes, and indeed vegetables generally, and as

constantly find that, by observing that rule, they experience a marked alleviation of their sufferings.

The berries, leaves, and stalks of potatoes are so strongly imbued with their deleterious qualities, as to render their ill effects on the human constitution speedily apparent; and so is the water in which potatoes have been boiled.

It is well known to the feeders of cattle, that animals kept much on potatoes lose flesh and soon become unhealthy.

All the onion tribe of plants, more particularly when raw, constitute a very unwholesome food; on account of their great putrefactive properties: and their hot and extremely acrid juice contaminates the humours of the body with its fiery qualities, producing a variety of ill effects, and often, highly dangerous symptoms. Were it desirable, a list of some length might be shown, of vegetables in common use, which are not beneficial to man.

The system of nature would have been imperfect had she not offered food to her creatures under the most acceptable and suitable form, without the necessity of other and far-fetched substances, in order to render it more palatable and wholesome: that of course she did to man as well as other beings, his food required no condiments to give it flavour, nor does it now when he partakes of those substances which she destined to be his aliment, and which are still most suitable for that purpose. It has evidently been from an instinctive conviction of the absence of some essential principles, that man has so dili