Life of Coimt Rumford. 191 



them as tolerable as they may be, all the best scientific 

 and mechanical improvements must be introduced in 

 workshops and kitchens, in the selection and cooking 

 of food, and in all the economy of administration. He 

 would rely largely upon the donations and bequests of 

 the rich, and would maintain that the endowment of 

 well-ordered institutions would prove more effectual 

 than the forms of private charity. 



As each of Thompson's benevolent schemes involved 

 this great object of economy, he was led to find the 

 next subject of his investigations in the selection and 

 preparation of Food, especially for the poor. When he 

 came to publish his Essay on- that subject in London, 

 in 1796, it was a time of general scarcity, and conse- 

 quently of anxiety and alarm. The House of Com- 

 mons and the Board of Agriculture were earnestly 

 engaged with measures for relieving distress and avert- 

 ing an apprehended famine. He begins his Essay, as 

 usual, with the easy and obvious practical philosophy 

 of his subject. He refers us to the principles and 

 method by which animals and plants are nourished. 

 The newly discovered fact that water, instead of being 

 a simple substance, might be decomposed, is turned to 

 instruction on this point. He enlarges upon the pleas- 

 ant maxim that the food which is most palatable is 

 likely to be also the most nutritious. He proves that 

 very little solid food is essential or healthful, even to 

 the most laborious persons, and shows how vegetables, 

 skilfully cooked, may be alike nutritious and palatable. 

 He deals most judiciously with what we may call his 

 new vegetable, the potato. He gives rules for the 

 construction of public kitchens, and very methodical 

 recipes, tables, and statistics of the most economical 



