Life of Coimt Rumford. 507 



which he chose to ridicule as actually the products of 

 the philosophic philanthropist's recipes. " Dirt and 

 bones " were the terms which he applied to the prof- 

 fered soups. He was willing that Irishmen should eat 

 potatoes, but Englishmen were worthy of something 

 better. He, however, displayed his own ignorance 

 when he represented even an insipid compound as 

 necessarily without nutrition, or failed to recognize the 

 fact that a bone may contain more invigorating matter 

 than a piece of solid muscular meat of the same weight. 

 The satirist was successful to a great degree in bringing 

 reproach upon a well-intended and beneficent scheme. 

 The soup-houses fell into disrepute, and the result was, 

 to an unfortunate degree, somewhat unfavorable to the 

 whole scheme and method by which Count Rumford 

 had endeavored to reorganize and administer public 

 charity. 



More recently a writer in Blackwood's Magazine,* 

 in a satirical article on " Panaceas for Poverty," has 

 found matter for raillery and jesting in the purely 

 humane and benevolent methods proposed by Count 

 Rumford for the relief of stern suffering in a time of 

 prevailing scarcity. It is well to keep in mind the fact, 

 that all bantering and trifling, on the part of those who 

 enjoy the comforts or revel in the easy luxuries of life, 

 with the appliances brought to bear, however inade- 

 quately, for the relief of destitution, are apt to be 

 regarded by the poor as a heartless mockery of their 

 condition. 



In connection with Count Rumford's philanthropic 

 labors, especially those referred to in preceding pages, 

 which led him, from the combined results of his own 



* Vol. XIV. p. 637. 



