784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



food. Oxygen had been discovered only sixteen years before, and 

 chemical analysis, as now understood, was an unknown art. In spite 

 of this, Rumford selected as the basis of his soup just that proximate 

 element which we now know to contain, bulk for bulk, more nutritive 

 matter than any other that exists either in the animal or vegetable 

 kingdom, viz., casein. He not only selected this, but he combined it 

 with those other constituents of food which our highest refinements of 

 modern practical chemistry and physiology have proved to be exactly 

 what are required to supplement the casein and constitute a complete 

 dietary. By selecting the cheapest form of casein and the cheapest 

 sources of the other constituents, he succeeded in supplying the beg- 

 gars with good hot dinners daily at the cost of one halfpenny each. 

 The cost of the mess for the Bavarian soldiers under his command 

 was rather more, viz., twopence daily, three farthings of this being 

 devoted to pure luxuries, such as beer, etc. The details of the means 

 by which he achieved these notable results will be stated in my next. 



THE ORIGIK OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



By M. ALPHONSE DE CANDOLLE.* 



THE traditions of the ancient peoples, embellished by the poets, 

 have commonly attributed the first steps in agriculture and the 

 introduction of useful plants to some divinity, or at least to some 

 great emperor or mca. Reflection teaches us that this is not probable, 

 and the observation of the agricultural efforts among the savages of 

 our own age indicates that the real facts in the case are quite differ- 

 ent. Generally, in the progressive steps that lead to civilization the 

 beginnings are weak, obscure, and narrow. There are reasons why 

 this should be so in agricultural and horticultural initiatives. There 

 are many gradations between the custom of gathering fruits, seeds, or 

 roots in the field and that of regularly cultivating the plants which 

 yield such products. A family may scatter seeds around its home, and 

 the next year seek the same product in the forest. Some fruit-trees 

 may be growing around a house, and we not know whether they have 

 been planted there, or the hut has been built near them for convenience 

 of access to them. Wars and hunting often interrupt efforts at culti- 

 vation. Rivalries and jealousies may make one tribe slow in imitat- 

 ing another. If some great personage ordains the cultivation of a 

 plant and institutes some ceremony in demonstration of its utility, it 

 is probably after obscure persons have spoken of it and successful 

 experiments have been made upon it. Previous to such demonstra- 

 tions adapted to impress the multitude, a shorter or longer period of 

 * From his new book, " The Origin of Cultivated Plants," recently published in Paris. 



