238 
raise a little money, and to try the cre- 
dulity of mankind. Of this credulity he 
had ample proof; for his fiction was re- 
ceived by many as a true story. 
Dec. 14, 1808. J.B. 
—— Sg tees 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
T the present season, when wheat is 
daily rising in its price, and bread 
is already exceeding dear, it becomes a 
duty to employ all the means in our 
power, to discover a substitute for that 
valuable article of food. 
If the numerous advantages which 
would result from the general use of the 
common potatoe, were sufficiently un- 
derstood, we should have more than a 
temporary substitute for the grain of 
wheat, as the nutritive property of that 
inestimable root, and the numerous me- 
thods of preparing it for food, would be 
such as to exclude wheat from being any 
longer considered as an indispensable 
necessary of life, even in this kingdom, 
where the prejudices of the people 
against the introduction of any substitute 
for wheat, appear to be more strongly 
rooted, than in any other nation upon 
earth, 
As this is my opinion of the real uti- 
lity of the potatoe, I am induced to un- 
dertake the solution of the question, ‘ Is 
boiling or roasting, the most economical 
mode of cooking the potatoe ?”—in order 
that, if one or other of these processes 
should prove to be exceedingly extra- 
vagant, we may relinquish the practice, 
and thus in future guard against the 
€rime of unmeaning wastefulness: ,a 
erime, which though little thought of, 
and not sufficiently exposed to public 
censure, is daily, and even hourly com- 
mitted by the giddy and the thoughtless, 
to the incalculable injury of the needy 
poor. | 
In no instance is this unnecessary 
wastefulness more conspicuous, than in 
the daily operations of cooking the com- 
mon articles of our food, in which the 
poor themselves are continually, though 
sometimes unintentionally committing 
this crime, the effects of which can fall 
only upon their own heads, and that too, 
at the very time it is committed. I 
‘would I had the ability to wield the pen 
with such irresistible power, as to com- 
mand what I write to be felt, to enable 
me to impress upon the minds of those, 
whom in this world it most concerns, 
this simple truth, that by unmeaning 
wastefulness, the poor sin against them- 
scives! 
- Best Mode of cooking Potatoes. 
{ 
F April i, 
Experiment 1.—Four potatoes, of the 
sort called here Captain Hart, weighing 
3607 grains, were put into a saucepan 
with cold water, which was made to boil 
in five minutes, and kept simmering at a 
boiling heat, for an hour. The water 
was then poured off, and the saucepan, 
with the potatoes, again set over the fire 
for two minutes, to evaporate the mois- 
ture from the external surface of the po-— 
tatoes. They were now taken out and 
weighed, whilst quite hot, and were found 
to weigh 3562 grains, having lost 45 
grains. When they were cool enough to 
be handled, and ceased to give out any 
vapour in the temperature of the air in 
the room, which was 54° Fahr. they were 
again put into the balance, and weighed 
3550 grains, having now lost 57 grains of 
their original weight. They were after- 
wards placed in acellar for twelve hours, 
and then weighed 3527 grains, having 
lost in the whole, by being boiled, 80 
grains. Thus we find that the potatoe, 
cooked for the table, by boiling loses 
little more than two per cent of its 
weight. 
But in another experiment which I 
made by boiling a single potatoe, which 
weighed 1300 grains, it lost only 10 grains _ 
after being boiled for an hour, and then 
cooled in a cellar for twelve hours. 
I confess that these experiments rather 
surprized me, asI had suspected a priori, 
that the root would have lost more in 
weight by boiling, and that it would after- 
wards have absorbed moisture from the 
air of adamp cellar. Hencewe learn the 
folly of remaining satisfied with mere 
suppositions, when it is so easy a matter 
to ascertain and establish facts by direct 
experiments. 
‘The water in which the potatoes were 
boiled, acquired the colour of an infu- 
sion of green-tea, and contained some 
mucilage or gum in solution, which gaye 
it something of the flavour of high dried 
malt. The extractive matter which the 
water at first dissolved, was afterwards 
coagulated by the heat, one portion pre- 
cipitating to the bottom, while the other 
formed a scum upon the surface of the 
fluid. If this liquor be freed from the 
extractive, by filtering it through fine 
linen, it becomes a wholesome and nu- 
tritious fluid, not possessing the least 
deleterious property, as has been com- 
monly attributed to it. But I shall have 
occasion at another time, to notice the 
qualities of this fluid, when treating of 
the infusion of raw potatoes. 
Experiment 2.—A Captain-Hart pe- 
tatoe, weighing 1220 grains, was placed 
under 
