io be considered nothing wore than a corallaiy upon the proposition 

 that precedes it, as to certain combinations of the nutritive subsiances 

 proving more nourishing than others, independently of the affair of 

 quantity^ which it is admitted will generally prove a criterion of their 

 value. No»v, without laying too much stress upon the established, po- 

 pular opinion, that wheaten bread ie more nourishing than any other 

 kind, (a notion by the bye, by no means to be overlooked in the argu-^ 

 ment,) we must recollect, that it appears frooi this chemist's analysis of 

 wheat and oa>ts, that the foriaer seed contains 953 parts of nutritioi^^ 

 matter out of a thousand, whereas in a thousand parts of the latter, 

 there are found only 743 of nutritive ingredi^pts. So that I iofer it is 

 meant, we should consider this lact of Sir Joseph Banks's^ ei^erj^^ 

 an illustralion of the notion, respectijjg the peculiar coaibinaf-ioij oC 

 nutritious mailer, producing n)^e nourishing effects, than the mere 

 quantity of such substances, or, ;*t least, as a proof that the faet 

 itself is one of a discordant kind, wbea viewed in relation to thp 

 different effects of the oat cakes, q^ the strengUi of the fljipers, ^ 

 summer and winter. -^rrtj':? 



But I confess I do not see that ibe fact, (which is one conii- 

 mon enoUjgh in the north of Irelawi, and is indeed top n^t^ 

 i*ious to be <lisp,uted,) by any means reduces us to the dileijin^^ 

 of either admitting its 4iscordance, or of inferring that iit is the 

 peculiar combination of the nutritious matter^ m the ^^aten cakes, 

 which produces luone .nourishin;g effects in winter, than wheaten 

 bread does. For, I cannot help being decidedly of opinion, that th^e 

 prefei'ence. which the miners give in wijo^er to the use of these cakrs, 

 depends solely upon the well known property^ which this kind of 

 food possesses of irritating the skin. By the use of it, in fact, the 

 skin is kept constantly warm, and it is well known, that in the se- 



