CHARACTERS. 
south certain epidemics, which 
they thought proper to ascribe to 
the sole means which existed to 
prevent them. The Comptroller 
General was obliged in 1771 to 
request the opinion of the faculty 
of medicine, in order to put an 
end to these false notions. 
Parmentier, who had learned to 
appreciate the potatoe in the pri- 
sons of Germany, where he had 
been often confined to that food, 
seconded the views of the minister, 
by a chemical examination of this 
root, in which he demonstrated 
that none of its constituents are 
hurtful. He did better still. To 
give the people a relish for them, 
he cultivated. them in the open 
fields, in places very much fre- 
quented. He guarded them care- 
fully during the day only; and 
was happy when he had excited as 
much curiosity as to induce peo- 
ple to steal some of them during 
the night. He would have wished 
that the King, as we read of the 
Emperors of China, had traced 
the first furrow of his field. His 
majesty thought proper at least to 
wear a bunch of potatoe flowers 
at his button-hole, in the midst of 
the court on a festival day. No- 
thing more was wanting to induce 
several great lords to plant this 
root. 
Parmentier wished likewise to 
engage the cooks of the great in 
the service of the poor, by inducing 
them to practise their skill on the 
potatoe; for he was aware that 
the poor could not obtain pota- 
toes in abundance unless they 
could furnish the rich with an 
agreeable article of food. He in- 
forms us that he one day gave a 
dinner composed entirely of pota- 
toes, with 20 different sauces, all 
44] 
of which gratified the palates of 
his guests. 
But the enemies of the potatoe, 
though refuted in their attempts 
to prove it injurious to the health, 
did not consider themselves as 
vanquished. They pretended that 
it injured the fields, and rendered 
them barren. It was not at all 
likely that a plant which is capa- 
ble of nourishing a greater num- 
ber of cattle, and multiplying the 
manure, should injure the soil. 
It was necessary, however, to an- 
swer this objection, and to consi- 
der the potatoe in an agricultural 
point of view. Parmentier ac- 
cordingly published in different 
forms every thing regarding its 
cultivation and uses, even in fer- 
tilizing the soil. He introduced 
the subject into philosophical 
works, into popular instructions, 
into journals, into dictionaries, 
into works of all kinds. During 
40 years he let slip no opportu- 
nity of recommending it. Every 
bad year wasa kind of auxiliary 
of which he profited with care to 
draw the attention of mankind to 
has favourite plant. 
Hence the name of this salu- 
tary vegetable and his own have 
become almost inseparable in the 
memory of the friends of huma- 
nity. Even the common people 
united them, and not always with 
gratitude. Ata certain period of 
the Revolution it was proposed to 
give Parmentier some municipal 
place. One of the voters opposed 
this proposal with fury :—‘‘ He 
will make us eat potatoes,” said 
he, ‘it was he who _ invented 
them.” 
But Parmentier did not ask the 
suffrages of the people. He knew 
well that it was always a duty to 
serve 
