Food. S39 



Nevertheless^ I have no doubt that malted potatoes would be found 

 to be more nutritive than the root in its natural state, or, in all pro- 

 bability, than when cooked ; just as malt mashes are found to be 

 more nutritive than mashes made of barley, for Horses exhausted by 

 disease or severe labour. For which reason, if potatoes could be 

 malted at a trifling expence, the application of the root in this state^ 

 as food for animals that are to be fattened, bid« fair to be attended 

 with the best effects. 



Dr. Pearson attributes the lightness and easiness of digestion of 

 cooked potatoes, in the human stomach, to the circumstance of the 

 meal being more intimately mixed or diffused through two and wn 

 half, or three times its weight of water, which the root itself contains, 

 than is the case with any artificial mixture of meal and water. This 

 observation of Dr. Pearson's, whether well or ill founded as to the 

 cause of the lightness of this root, at any rate explains the reason, 

 why Horses, whose food consists of a large portion of steamed 

 potatoes, do not require much water. 



For, it is a rule laid down by Mr. Curwen, (grounded no doubt 

 upon experience,) that they ought to be allowed but a scanty supply 

 of water, even when fed in part only, upon this root. And the Bishop 

 of Kildare informs me, that he has found when steamed potatoes are 

 given largely, no water should be allowed, and that a Horse indulged 

 to the extent of his appetite with this food, will drink little or no water, 

 if it be offered to him after feeding. He further adds, that if a suffi- 

 ciency of steamed potatoes, and a fair feed of oats be laid at each end of 

 the same manger, at the same instant, before a Horse in the habit of 

 feeding on the former, he will not, till provoked by renewed hunger, 

 take the pains to break an^ masticate the oats at all. His Lordship 



