342 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



*>— saponin oi* an allied vegetable alkali. These plants also furnish many 

 useful medicines, and not unfrequently highly nutritious food. The poison- 

 ous principle is readily expelled by heat, as in the manihot or jatropha, 

 whence the cassova and tapioca are derived. 



Dr. Stevens. — This is the bread fruit of Brazil, and I have seen the natives 

 preparing it for use. The plant resembles very closely our sassafras; it 

 has the same rough bark and the same palmate leaf. The food is derived 

 from the root, and it probably produces a larger amount of food from a 

 given area of ground than any other plant. A yield of 3,000, 4,000, and 

 5,000 bushels to the acre is not uncommon, and the cultivation is of the 

 roughest kind. In fact, it has no cultivation except planting. The uni- 

 versal South American knife, the machete, is used to cut a hole in the sod, 

 the plant is inserted, and left to take its chance. It is sure to take its 

 chance, however. It will root out all other plants, and it cannot itself be 

 destroyed. The root is grated in mills, the milk flows away, and the pulp 

 is dried for food. The milk is wasted by the hogshead; I have seen a river 

 white with it for a long distance below the grating mill. This milk is 

 poisonous, and it contains the saponaceous principle. The women use it 

 freely for washing their persons, and I am bound to say, that during the 

 bread fruit harvest is the only time of year that they are clean. 



Prof. Seely. — I will say a word in regard to soft soap. Genuine soft soap, 

 such as I knew in my boyhood, is not now to be found. This was made by 

 the farmers from the ashes of their wood fires. The ashes were placed in 

 a barrel, and leached by pouring water upon them from time to time, and 

 then the lye was boiled with grease to make soft soap. Now farmers come 

 into the city and buy something under the name of soft soap; but it is 

 nothing but a little hard soap with a great deal of water and a little sal- 

 soda. It would be much more economical to buy the hard soap without 

 the water. 



On motion of Mr. Fisher, the subject of " Printing in Colors " was adopted 

 for the meeting two weeks hence. 



Adjourned. Thomas D. Stetson, Secretary, 



American Institute Polytechnic Association, \ 



May 22, 1862. j 



The Chairman, Prof. Chas. A. Joy, presiding. 



The only miscellaneous business introduced was the presentation to the 

 society of J. W, Nystrom's book containing an exposition of his 



New System of Arithmetic, 



with sixteen for the base in place of ten in the present decimal system. 

 The work was referred to a committee, consisting of Mr. Stetson, Prof. 

 Seely and Mr. Dibben, and the society proceeded to the discussion of the 

 lingular subject of the evening: 



