136 ON THE APPLICATION OF DISEASED POTATOES. 



nutrition ; because, although the potatoe contains the starch 

 in a normal condition, there is a deficiency in the nitro- 

 gen ized portion, or, rather, the nitrogenized part, which is 

 essential to the healthy performance of the vital functions, 

 is damaged, and hence the use of diseased potatoes is likely 

 to give rise to ulceration of the cornea, ulceration of the 

 gums, and other maladies which arise from defective nu- 

 trition? Throughout this year I have, in my own practice, 

 constantly noticed cases of peculiar ulceration of the 

 mouth and gums, but I have been unable to say that they 

 were actually to be attributed to the use of diseased 

 potatoes. 



(529.) There is very little doubt but that damaged 

 potatoes, as well as all other injured food, may be a fruit- 

 ful source of fever, ulceration of the bowels, and of diar- 

 rhoea. In fact, many practitioners have called attention 

 to cases of English cholera which have arisen apparently 

 from this cause. 



(530.) The evidence which I have endeavored to pro- 

 cure about their influence on animals is contradictory. At 

 a very large farm near London, the foreman told me that 

 he employe 1 them profitably when boiled for fattening 

 pigs, and that he had used about forty tons for that purpose. 



(531.) At a farm in Kent, I heard that the pigs and 

 sheep were killed by eating diseased potatoes, and that, 

 therefore, they could only employ the potatoes for manure. 



(532.) Bullocks, I am told, have been fattened with 

 good success, in Essex, with damaged tubers; and the 

 greengrocers inform me that the diseased tubers are eager- 

 ly bought by the cow-keepers, as they are found to cause 

 the animal to give abundance of milk. 



Against this application I strongly protest, for the sup- 



