THE POTATO. 257 



blissful ignorance of their virtues. The soldiers in our late 

 war tell us that there was nothing of which they felt the de- 

 privation more than of potatoes, and we have been amused at 

 the recital of some of the contrivances to which the soldiers 

 resorted to make bread, rice and crackers a substitute for this 

 root. One of them told us of making hash of meat and 

 crackers. Said he, " It made a pleasing variety, but I would 

 have given more for one potato than a pound of crackers." 



There can be no question but that the introduction of po- 

 tatoes as a common article of diet, has produced a civilizing 

 influence on mankind. We cannot go all lengths with those 

 physiologists who maintain that a man's character can be de- 

 termined by the food that he eats, but that the food exerts 

 some influence on the character, there is abundant proof. 

 Our Saxon fathers, who lived mainly on meat, esteeming a 

 boar's head the greatest of delicacies, had a little too much of 

 the wild boar in their composition to live in peace with all 

 men. If they finished one of their great convivial feasts, in 

 which game was the chief viand and ale the chief drink, 

 without a general melee, it was the exception, not the gener- 

 al rule. We can see the effects of an exclusive meat diet, 

 even on the inferior animals, A dog fed on raw meat is sav- 

 age, ready to quarrel with any dog he meets. Fed on hasty- 

 pudding the same dog is peaceable. There is a peculiar stim- 

 ulating principle in meat, which tlie chemists call kearin, 

 similar to theine of tea, or narcotine of opium, all healthy 

 enough in its action on the human system if not taken in ex- 

 cess. The stimulus which meat gives us is probably just 

 what we require for muscular or mental effort, but it needs 

 to be diluted with some vegetables, or it drives our physical 

 machinery so fast that we wear out too soon, and potatoes, 

 next to bread, are the most acceptable accompaniment and 

 diluent of meat. 



The history of the potato is at once interesting and in- 

 structive. We have already intimated that it is a native of 

 America. Potatoes were first carried to Spain from South 

 America, their native home, about the middle of the sixteenth 

 century, under the name of papas. Sir Walter Raleigh first 

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