On the Treatment of Decayed Potatoes, Sfc. 
555 
their use is that they might act in the same way as other decayed 
matter. Well attested instances are certainly on record of the 
communication of loathsome disease to persons who have partaken 
of decayed sausages or putrid bacon. But in e\ery such instance 
of disease the decayed aliment has been partaken of in a cold 
state, and long after the substance had been exposed to the action 
of heat. As the injurious qualities of such organic substances are 
not due to any specific compound, but merely to their state of decay, 
we know with certainty that the progress of decay is stopped by 
exposure to the heat of boiling water. If, therefore, the diseased 
potatoes be given to an animal shortly after being boiled, there 
need not be the slightest apprehension of danger. In fact, Pvl. 
Bonjean of Chambery has completely set this at rest — had any 
douljtever existed. He lived for several days on boiled potatoes, 
which had been thrown away as refuse, and drunk 8 oz. of the 
water in which they had been boiled — water sufficiently bad, for 
he describes it " of a yellowish brown colour, turbid and thick, of 
a slightly disagreeable smell and nauseous taste, leaving a bitter 
imj)ression on the palate which lasted for several hours." With 
tlie boiled potatoes, M. Bonjean perceived no unusual effect : the 
water, however, produced " a disagreeable burning sensation in 
his chest which lasted for a few hours ; but this experiment was 
altogether unnecessary, and there is no such risk in ordinary cases. 
Although the Irish Commissioners never doubted the safety of 
giving diseased potatoes to animals, after the tubers had been 
boiled, they fed pigs and a cow on tubers in a very advanced stage 
of decomposition without observing the slightest prejudicial result 
from doing so. It is quite true that potatoes actually putrid have 
produced disease in the lower animals ; and I have received docu- 
ments from Dr. Buckland referring to a case in which pigs were 
thus poisoned, but in all these cases the potatoes were given raw 
and not boiled. The diseased part of the potato contains an acrid 
bitter principle, which renders it of a disagreeable taste, and when 
it is intended for domestic use the affected portions should be ex- 
cised, and the remainder, after being boiled, is still as good as 
before the tuber became tainted. 
With the cut-out portions of potatoes used for human food, 
and with those diseased potatoes which are not converted into 
money by fattening cattle, we are enabled to save a great propor- 
tion of the nutritious matter which remains. 
Starch is the principal ingredient characteristic of the po- 
tato, but the cjuantity present in the tuber depends upon the 
variety. Pay en has examined this subject, and the following 
tabular statement of his results shows not only the proportion of 
starch, but also the produce of varieties grown on the same kind 
of land : — 
VOL. VI. 2 P 
