The Microscope. 



Fig. 1. White Potato, cooked by boiling. One 

 inch objective, 1,'a inch eye-piece. 



All these figures drawn from object by Mrs. 

 Mary Smith, nee Chapin. 



But it is none the less an argument in favor of the microscope, 

 which transmits ideas of the real character of things which have no 

 reputation for their really ;esthetical character — like potatoes that 

 grow in the ground, smothered in manure ! 



WHITE POTATOES. COOKED. 



Whether cooked by steam, boiling water or the heat of frying 

 fat, a wonderful change in the morphology of the raw potato is 

 effected, more or less complete, according to the time and thorough- 

 ness of the process. When thoroughly done, the parts that looked 

 like the interspaces of a network tilled with distinct and separate 

 starch grains of v a r i o u s 



shapes and sizes, as afore- 

 said, now appear in new 

 phases as sacs or obovoid 

 bundles, distinct, free and 

 differing in shape according 

 to the demands of the spher- 

 ical geometry that obtains in 

 the building up of the tuber. 

 Fig. 1. 



The inside of the sacs are filled with the starch grains. It 

 seems as if the outside wall of the sacs was made up of the cellu- 

 lose fibers which, before the action of the heat, formed the network 

 aforesaid. How it is that the fibers and strings of this network are 

 turned by heat into a complete sac is hard to understand, because 



there seems to be a running of sepa- 

 rate fibers from one space to others. 

 Still the fact remains ; the sacs 

 seem to come out as smooth and com- 

 plete as the shell of an egg, only 

 that the sac wall is clear as glass and 

 polarizes light. 



If the cooking 'process is not 

 complete, the following facts are 

 noted under the microscope : 

 The starch grains are distinct and have interspaces between 

 them. 



2. They polarize light. 



If the cooking is complete, the following facts are noticed : 



1. The starch grains are broken up into one homogeneous, well- 

 mixed mass. 



2. They do not polarize light. 





Fig. 2. 

 objective. 



1. 



Baked Potatoes. 

 l>i eyepiece. 



}i inch 



