POTATO, 579 
bread. M. Mossé, at the French Academy of Medicine, goes 
so far as to recommend the use by diabetic patients of Potatoes, 
to the amount of two, or three, pounds daily. If thus substituted 
for bread they diminish the amount of eliminated sugar, also 
the quantity of urine passed, and the degree of thirst which is 
suffered, whilst the general health improves, and any surgical 
wounds heal kindly. In the cases of arthritic diabetes of elderly 
patients the Potato diet is something more than a properly 
assimilated form of food, since it exercises a decidedly curative 
effect. This effect M. Mossé attributes to the considerable 
quantity of alkaline salts, chiefly those of potash, contained in 
the tubers. But mashed Potatoes have the disadvantage of 
not being masticated sufficiently for the saliva to change the 
starches into dextrin. The experimental allowing of potatoes 
among their foods may be safely commended for diabetic patients 
who have arrived at such a stage in their treatment that they 
may be permitted to take a certain amount of starch elements, 
and sugar, but cannot tolerate bread. Sir James Sawyer 
(Birmingham, 1904) says: ‘My own experience in practice 
during the last two years is confirmatory of Mossé’s conclusions. 
I think it will be found that the permission of Potatoes in the 
food of diabetics is one of the greatest dietetic advances of our 
times. But the vegetable should be cooked in a particular way, 
that is, baked in their skins for choice, or by steaming with their 
‘skin’ on; otherwise large proportions of the potash, and of 
the phosphoric acid will be lost.” (We would suggest that 
very probably the narcotic properties of the skin, which are 
indisputable, exercise an important auxiliary effect.) Sir 
James goes on to propose the use of Potato flour (of properly- 
cooked tubers) instead of grain flour for making the bread, 
cakes, and biscuits of diabetic patients. Excellent, and delicious 
cakes can be contrived from paste made by rubbing down 
Potatoes cooked as enjoined, and blended with cream, or 
butter. Likewise for Bran and Potato Bread: “ Take half a 
pound of flour of steamed Potatoes, a quarter of a pound of 
bran, half an ounce of German yeast, half an ounce of butter, 
and one egg. Twenty-four hours before making the dough 
cook the Potatoes by steaming them in their jackets ; then peel, 
and break them up into flour with the fingers ; mix all the ingre- 
dients together, and let the paste stand near the fire for an hour 
to ‘rise’; then bake in a greased tin for an hour and a half.” 
