O'SHEA — ASPECTS OP MENTAL ECONOMY. 133 



tion of heat in baking. It is at the same time more digestible, 

 and so in reality more nutritious. 



A word should be said respecting the cookery of one or two 

 other common articles of food — and first, potatoes. The usual 

 mode in our own locality is to boil them peeled and mash them. 

 Now, one of the most valuable nutrient elements in the potato 

 is the salts of potash, which in a jacketless potato readily es- 

 capes into the water during boiling, and especially if the tubers 

 are placed in cold water at the outset. Jackets or no jackets 

 then is the vital question, and we are compelled to decide in 

 favor of the affirmative. In countries where the people cannot 

 obtain these salts in meats and other foods, experience has 

 taught them to cook the potatoes always without peeling. Bak- 

 ing, though, is altogether the most desirable mode of cooking 

 the potato. By this method all the salts are preserved; while 

 in boiling, even with the covers on, the potato suffers some loss. 

 It is very evident from our returns that a reform is needed in 

 the cooking of such a substantial and yet simple article of food 

 as the potato. 



It is probable that one of the most poorly cooked foods in 

 our locality is the egg. The method is almost universally fry- 

 ing. To say nothing about the chemical changes which this 

 produces, it is enough to point out that the albumen becoming 

 incased in animal fat partially decomposed is well nigh invul- 

 nerable to the attacks of the digestive juices. On the other 

 hand, anyone who has tried immersing an egg for eight minutes 

 or so in water about twenty degrees below the boiling point 

 and which has been taken off the stove, will know that no part 

 of the egg is cooked hard and yet heat has penetrated through- 

 out the whole. An egg cooked in this way is highly digestible 

 and possesses a delicious flavor ; for a morning meal it will sup- 

 ply the energy needed for the day's work much more speedily 

 and with less expenditure of internal forces than a fried egg or 

 an egg boiled in water at a temperature of 212°. 



