380 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



chemical investigation has shown it to possess a peculiarity dis- 

 tinguishing it from nearly all other vegetables and grains used as 

 human food. Although aifording an inferior nutriment in pro- 

 portion to the bulk necessarily consumed, from its consisting of 

 three-quarters water, it notwithstanding, contains in its composi- 

 tion all those elements of nutrition, that are known to exist sepa- 

 rately in most other grain and vegetables, and can, therefore, 

 only be obtained from other articles of food by combining diiFer- 

 ent kinds together. Consequently, the potato may be used singly 

 for nutrition and support ; while a combination of other vegeta- 

 ble products are required to furnish the varied elements that are 

 indispensable for the growth and support of the human frame. In 

 ignorance of this fact, both rich and poor, during famine abroad, 

 alike committed error in attempting to substitute, some one article 

 or other for food, as an equivalent in itself for the potato. The 

 poor tried to maintain themselves on grain; the rich substituted 

 rice, on account of the popular but erroneous idea, that it fur- 

 nished the sole article of food of the people of China, and other 

 countries. Rice alone, however, is not anywhere on the globe 

 the sole support of any portion of the human family. Experience 

 having taught those who used it as a chief article of diet, that of 

 itself, it is not capable of supporting life; and hence, there is always 

 consumed with it by those people — oil, or some seed, grain, vegeta- 

 ble, fish, or meat, in order to add to the rice the elements of 

 nutrition it does not itself contain. Thus, even if a full supply 

 of grain food could have been obtained, the mass of the people 

 would have consumed it, ignorant of the necessity of those com- 

 binations that are requisite in its use, and disease, to a considera- 

 ble extent would have resulted necessarily, until experience had 

 corrected the error. A general mistake intimately connected 

 with the use of rice was the belief that the bulk acquired by 

 boiling indicated a like quantity of nourishment contained in 

 such bulk; and that it was far more nutritious than Indian corn, 

 because it furnished by an equal quantity, a far larger bulk of ap- 

 parently solid food. Rice contains, by analysis, eighty-five parts 

 in one hundred of starch; a given quantity of it wall, by boiling, 

 absorb a large proportion of water, and swell into a huge and 



