No. 144.] 465 



selves. Prices still continued to rise in '47, and the increase of 

 fevers was alarming, and during '48 and a part of '49, the prices 

 continued high, and notwithstanding all the benevolent exertions 

 of the British government, aided by the United States, in substi- 

 tuting corn meal, beans, peas, lentils, and rice, for the potato, an 

 epidemic of unparalleled severity continued to ravage the coun- 

 try. In 1850 it was discovered that oatmeal, weight for weight, 

 contained four times as much nutriment as potatoes; and when 

 the people used it and corn meal freely, the disease began to 

 abate. Had it not been for this substitution, the same amount 

 of distress would probably have prevailed for a much longer 

 period, perhaps even until now, as that invaluable root still bears 

 a high price in comparison with former years; and those farmers 

 in Ireland who are successful in its cultivation at the present 

 time, through motives of economy, prefer to sell their potatoes, 

 and live upon Indian and oaten meal. 



The matters produced in plants, by the assimilation of their 

 nourishment, may now be considered; starch represents several 

 of them, consisting of water and carbon. Woody fibre protects 

 the cells of plants, and though insoluble in water, animals digest 

 it ; when weighed it is found to contain 45 parts of water, and 

 36 parts of carbon. The chemical composition of common starch 

 is nearly the same; it is more or less soluble in water. 



Gum, which is called dextrine, is found in the sap of plants, 

 arable, or gum arable, may be dissolved in cold water ; but cera- 

 sine, or the gum of cherry trees, requires boiling water for its 

 liquefaction; these gums, in their chemical formation, are the 

 same as starch The mucilage, or sticky matter, that water ex- 

 tracts from seeds, is called gum tragacanth, and consists of 57 

 water and 48 carbon. 



Pectine is a substance which contains more oxygen and less 

 hydrogen than starch; it is found in fruits, such as the plum, 

 apple, pear, peach, &c., and in the turnip, parsnip, carrot, and 

 other vegetables. 



Sugar contains66 water and i8 carbon; one variety of it is found 

 in thecane,turnip, beet, carrot, unripe corn, and at the base of clo- 

 [Assembly, No. 144.J D 2 



