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His maintenance was thus secured, and his situation soon became sufficiently comfortable. The administration of the house seeing that his conduct justified his success, induced the King in 1772 to make him Apothecary in Chief; a recompense which an unforeseen accident rendered more complete than had been intended, or than he had expected.

The pharmacy of the Invalids had been directed from its first establishment by the Sœurs de Charité. These good women, who had made a great deal of young Parmentier while he was only their boy, took it ill that he should be put upon a level with them. They made so much noise, and put in motion such powerful interest, that the King himself was obliged to draw back; and after two years of controversy, he made the singular decision that Parmentier should continue to enjoy the advantages of his place, but should no longer fulfil its functions.

This enabled him to devote the whole of his time to his zeal for researches of general utility. From that moment he never interrupted them.

The first opportunity of publishing some results respecting his favourite subject had been given him in 1771 by the Academy of Besançon. The scarcity in 1769 had drawn the attention of the administration and of philosophers towards vegetables which might supply the place of corn, and the Academy had made the history of them the subject of a prize, which Parmentier gained. He endeavoured to prove in his dissertation that the most useful nourishing substance in vegetables is starch,

and he showed how it might be extracted from the roots and seeds of different indigenous plants, and how deprived of the acrid and poisonous principles which alter it in some plants. He pointed out likewise the mixtures which would assist in converting this starch into good bread, or at least into a kind of biscuit fit for being eaten in soup.

There is no doubt that in certain cases some advantage may be derived from the methods which he proposes; but as most of the plants pointed out are wild, scanty, and would cost more than the dearest corn, absolute famine is the only thing that could induce mankind to make use of them.Parmentier easily perceived that it was better to turn the attention of cultivators to such plants as would render a famine, or even a scarcity, impossible. He therefore recommended the potatoe with all his might, and opposed with constancy the prejudices which opposed themselves to the propagation of this important root.

Most botanists, and Parmentier himself, have stated on the authority of Gaspar Bauhin that the potatoe was brought from Virginia about the end of the sixteenth century; and they usually ascribe to the celebrated and unfortunate Raleigh the honour of having first brought it to Europe. I think it more probable that it was brought from Peru by the Spaniards. Raleigh only went to Virginia in the year 1586; and we may conclude, from the testimony of Cluvius, that in 1587 the potatoe was common in different parts of Italy, and that it was already given to cattle in that coun

try.

It is difficult to believe that a plant so innocent, so agreeable, so productive, which requires so little trouble to be rendered fit for food; that a root so well defended against the intemperance of the seasons; that a plant which by a singular privilege unites in itself everyadvantage, without any other inconvenience than that of not lasting all the year, but which even

try. This supposes at least seve-bited in Burgundy, because it was ral years of cultivation. This ve- supposed that they produced the getable was pointed out about the leprosy. end of the sixteenth century by several Spanish writers, as cultivated in the environs of Quito, where it was called papas, and where different kinds of dishes were prepared from it: and, what seems decisive, Banister and Clayton, who have investigated the indigenous plants of Virginia with great care, do not reckon the potatoe among the number; and Banister mentions expressly that he had for 12 years sought in vain for that plant; while Dombey found it in a wild state on all the Cordilleras, where the Indians still apply it to the same purposes as at the time of the original disco

very.

The mistake may have been owing to this circumstance, that Virginia produces several other tuberose plants, which from imperfect descriptions may have been confounded with the potatoe. Bauhin, for example, took for the potatoe the plant called open awk by Thomas Harriot. There are likewise in Virginia ordinary potatoes; but the anonymous author of the history of that country says, that they have nothing in common with the potatoe of Ireland and England, which is our pomme de terre.

Be this as it may, that admirable vegetable was received in a very different manner by the nations of Europe.. The Irish seem to have taken advantage of them first; for at an early period we find the plant distinguished by the name of Irish potatoe. But in France they were at first proscribed. Bauhin states that in his time the use of them had been prohi

owes to this circumstance the additional advantage that it cannot be hoarded up by monopoliststhat such a plant should have required two centuries in order to overcome the most puerile prejudices.

Yet we ourselves have been witnesses of the fact. The English brought the potatoe into Flanders during the wars of Louis XIV. It was thence spread, but very sparingly, over some parts of France. Switzerland had put a higher value on it, and bad found it very good. Several of our southern provinces had planted it in imitation of that country at the period of the scarcities, which were several times repeated during the last years of Louis XV. Turgot in particular rendered it common in the Limousin and the Angoumois, over which he was Intendant; and it was to be expected that in a short time this new branch of subsistence would be spread over the kingdom, when some old physicians renewed against it the prejudices of the 16th century.

It was no longer accused of producing leprosy, but fevers. The scarcities had produced in the

South

south certain epidemics, which they thought proper to ascribe to the sole means which existed to prevent them. The Comptroller General was obliged in 1771 to request the opinion of the faculty of medicine, in order to put an end to these false notions.

Parmentier, who had learned to appreciate the potatoe in the prisons of Germany, where he had been often confined to that food, seconded the views of the Minister by a chemical examination of this root, in which he demonstrated that none of its constituents are hurtful. He did better still. To give the people a relish for them, he cultivated them in the open fields, in places very much frequented. He guarded them carefully during the day only; and was happy when he had excited as much curiosity as to induce people to steal some of them during the night. He would have wished that the King, as we read of the Emperors of China, had traced the first furrow of his field. His Majesty thought proper at least to wear a bunch of potatoe flowers at his button-hole in the midst of the Court on a festival day. Nothing more was wanting to induce several great lords to plant this

root.

Parmentier wished likewise to engage the cooks of the great in the service of the poor, by inducing them to practise their skill on the potatoe; for he was aware that the poor could not obtain potatoes in abundance unless they could furnish the rich with an agreeable article of food. He informs us that he one day gave a dinner composed entirely of potatoes, with 20 different sauces, all

of which gratified the palates of his guests.

But the enemies of the potatoe, though refuted in their attempts to prove it injurious to the health, did not consider themselves as vanquished. They pretended that it injured the fields, and rendered them barren. It was not at all likely that a plant which is capa ble of nourishing a greater number of cattle, and multiplying the manure, should injure the soil. It was necessary, however, to answer this objection, and to consider the potatoe in an agricultural point of view. Parmentier accordingly published in different forms every thing regarding its cultivation and uses, even in fertilizing the soil. He introduced the subject into philosophical works, into popular instructions, into journals, into dictionaries, into works of all kinds. During 40 years he let slip no opportunity of recommending it. Every bad year was a kind of auxiliary, of which he profited with care to draw the attention of mankind to his favourite plant.

Hence the name of this salutary vegetable and his own have become almost inseparable in the memory of the friends of humanity. Even the common people united them, and not always with gratitude. At a certain period of the Revolution it was proposed to give Parmentier some municipal place. One of the voters opposed this proposal with fury:-" He will make us eat potatoes," said he, "it was he who invented them."

But Parmentier did not ask the suffrages of the people. He knew well that it was always a duty to

serve them. But he knew equally that as long as their education remained what it is, it was a duty likewise not to consult them. He had no doubt that at length the advantage of his plans would be appreciated. And one of the fortunate things attending his old age was to see the almost complete success of his perseverance. "The potatoe has now only friends," he wrote in one of his last works, even in those cantons from which the spirit of system and contention seemed anxious to banish it for ever."

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But Parmentier was not one of those persons who occupy themselves exclusively with one idea. The advantages which he had perceived in the potatoe did not make him neglect those offered by other vegetables.

Maize, the plant which, next to the potatoe, gives the most economical food, is likewise a present of the New World, although in some places it is still obstinately called Turkey corn. It was the principal food of the Americans when the Spaniards visited their coasts. It was brought to Europe much earlier than the potatoe; for Fuchs describes it, and gives a drawing of it, in 1543. likewise spread more quickly; and by giving to Italy, and our southern provinces, a new and abundant article of food, it has greatly contributed to enrich them, and increase their population.

It was

Parmentier, therefore, in order to encourage its culture, had need only to explain, as he does in a very couplete manner, the precautions which its cultivation requires, and the numerous uses to which it may be applied. He

wished to exclude buck wheat, which is so inferior, from the few cantons where it is still cultivated.

The acorn, which they say nourished our ancestors before they were acquainted with corn, is still very useful in some of our provinces, chiefly about the centre of the kingdom. M. Daine, Intendant of Limoges, induced Parmentier to examine whether it was not possible to make from it an eatable bread, and capable of being kept. His experiments were unsuccessful; but they occasioned a complete treatise on the acorn, and on the different preparations of its food.

Corn itself was an object of long study with him; and perhaps he has not been of less service in explaining the best methods of grinding and baking, than in spreading the cultivation of potatoes. Chemical analysis having informed him that bran contains no nourishment proper for man, he concluded that it was advantageous to exclude it from bread.He deduced from this the advantages of an economical method of grinding, which, by subjecting the grain repeatedly to the mill and the sieve, detaches from the bran even the minutest particles of flour; and he proved likewise that it furnished, at a lower price, a white, agreeable, and more nutritive bread. Ignorance had so misunderstood the advantages of this method, that laws had long existed to prevent it, and that the most precious part of the grain was given to the cattle along with the bran.

Parmentier studied with care every thing relating to bread; and because books would have been of little service to millers and

bakers,

bakers, people who scarcely read any, he induced Government to establish a School of Baking, from which the pupils would speedily carry into the provinces all the good practices. He went himself to Britanny and Languedoc, with M. Cadet-Devaux, in order to propagate his doctrine.

He caused the greatest part of the bran which was mixed with the bread of the soldiers to be withdrawn; and by procuring them a more healthy and agreeable article of food, he put an end to a multitude of abuses of which this mixture was the source.

Skilful men have calculated that the progress of knowledge in our days relative to grinding and baking has been such, that abstracting from the other vegetables which may be substituted for corn, the quantity of corn necessary for the food of an individual may be reduced more than a third. As it is chiefly to Parmentier that the almost general adoption of these new processes is owing, this calculation establishes his services better than a thousand panegyrics.

Ardent as Parmentier was for the public utility, it was to be expected that he would interest himself much in the efforts occasioned by the last war to supply exotic luxuries. It was he that brought the syrup of grapes to the greatest perfection. This preparation, which may be ridiculed by those who wish to assimilate it to sugar, has notwithstanding reduced the consumption of sugar many thousand quintals, and has produced immense savings in our hospitals, of which the poor have reaped the advantage, has given a

new value to our vines at a time when the war and the taxes made them be pulled up in many places, and will not remain less useful for many purposes, even if sugar should again fall in this country to its old price.

We have seen above how Parmentier, being by pretty singular accidents deprived of the active superintendance of the Invalids, had been stopped in the natural line of his advancement. He had too much merit to allow this injustice to continue long. Government employed him in different circumstances as a military apothecary; and when in 1788 a consulting council of physicians and surgeons was organized for the army, the Minister wished to place him there as apothecary; but Bayen was then alive, and Parmentier was the first to represent that he could not take his seat above his master. He was therefore named assistant to Bayen This institution, like many others, was suppressed during the period of revolutionary anarchy. an epoch during which even medical subordination was rejected. But necessity obliged them soon to reestablish it under the names of Commission and Council of Health for the Armies; and Parmentier, whom the reign of terror had for a time driven from Paris, was speedily placed in it.

He showed in this situation the same zeal as in all others; and the hospitals of the army were prodigiously indebted to his care. He neglected nothing-instructions, repeated orders to his inferiors, pressing solicitations to men in authority. We have seen him. within these few years deploring

the

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