Slike strani
PDF
ePub

ciency of the educational corps will be proportionate to the sum which commands it.

The constant changing of instructors, especially in the Primary Departments, is also a grievous evil. It operates painfully on the feelings of both children and teachers. The little one of tender years, fresh from home, easily appreciates and rapidly attaches itself to its first teacher. In about six months these cords of affection are severed, and the child is removed to a higher class. Its distrust, to use no harsher word, of its new preceptor, ranges in an inverse ratio to its affection for its former instructor; and by the young and thoughtless teacher, is apt to be reciprocated in too many instances. The semi-annual repetition of this indurating process, hardens the feelings of the child and changes its heart of flesh into stone. The present age beholds and bewails the lack of affection too often exhibited by children to their parents; but such children, when they take their place as parents of the third generation, in spite of Lear's eloquent invective, will, it may fairly be presumed, be better able to bear the infliction.

The next charge may be considered as involved in the two former; it is, that under the present system, few teachers look upon the instruction of youth as their permanent occupation. Of public instructors now engaged in this State, it may safely be asserted that fully one-fourth will be employed in other occupations before the next census is taken. A large proportion of these are young girls. It is manifest that many causes will and must contribute to deplete their ranks. As a general rule, they do not hesitate to admit they dislike their profession. With the many, it is only a stop-gap between girlhood and matrimony. Possibly the Primary Department suffers most under this infliction. Tender guidance, careful supervision, and firm government should dignify this department; a matron of mature years should preside over it; and the emolument attached to the position should be such as to command the permanency of the occupant..

The propriety of congregating masses of children of all ages and both sexes in numbers ranging from eight to eighteen hundred is, and well may be, contested by experienced teachers. It is admitted that physical, and, in some cases, mental or intellectual drilling, can be accomplished en masse. But the inculcation of morality is a different affair, often requiring special supervision; and even though the State be willing that morality should be dispensed with, it is certain that it would disapprove of immorality being communicated; and it is questionable if this be not the case in many of our public schools. Moral malarias are far more subtle than physical, and their effects are far more difficult to detect and remedy. It would be unwise to trust Rarey himself with a valuable colt, if he had a thousand others in training at the same time. Moral infirmities are also infinitely more varied than physical. They require especial and individual treat

ment, differing in almost all instances. There are many persons capable of training an army of one or two thousand children, but to faithfully superintend the physical, mental, and moral education of one or two hundred is a labor of Hercules. It may be asserted, that those who most fully appreciate the duties of their profession, who are most experienced and most capable, would be most ready to admit their inability to fulfill all the requirements of such an obligation.

The immediate elective public supervision at present existing is also an excrescence that must be removed. The teacher and the justice of the peace should be above the people, and only amenable to authorities capable of adjudicating between themselves and the public. The operation of this evil element has disorganized some and demoralized many of our schools. It is hardly possible to go into any village in the State satisfied with its schoolmaster, but you will be informed secretly that the trustees have obtained him at a far lower rate than he ought to command. You will do well not to intimate that they may be incompetent judges of the mercantile value of the article-instructor.

The last evil I shall mention is the evident attempt, on the part of our school dignitaries in this city, to take the power of physical, or, if you please, corporal punishment from the principals of our public schools. They would seem to be doing their best to make the head of the school a roi fainean, or a mayor of the city of New York. Are not the authorities aware that what their preceptor can not do is more promptly learned by the children under his charge than what he can do? Impotent for evil, he will also be impotent for good-a mere master of the ceremonies, instead of an absolute ruler. Dr. Busby, of scholastic fame, was so impressed with the importance of preserving his dignity in the eyes of his pupils, that when he exhibited his school to the king, he marched through it before him, covered, and did not take off his hat till he went into his study, when he apologized for his conduct in the following words: "I pray your majesty's pardon for this seeming discourtesy ; but if my boys knew there was a greater man in the kingdom than myself, I could not rule them a week." Our children, if this obtains, will be better instructed as to the position of their ruler; and, perceiving that no confidence is placed in his discretion by the public, are not to be blamed if they also decline to yield him a ready obedience.

The historian Alison asserts" that the national system of education inculcates immorality." The alarming increase of juvenile crimes and consequent committals, in our larger cities, which, in some instances, have advanced two and even threefold since 1840, would seem to justify his assertion. Under these fearful circumstances is a sickly sentimentality to deprive the schoolmaster of one, and, in some cases, the only curb to the spread of infections immorality, by circumscribing his power of corporal chastisement privately administered? It is admitted that children prop

erly educated rarely or never need such punishment. But how many are thus trained? How many are neglected! How many are viciously instructed by evil example before they enter the doors of the school-house! Rely upon it, the moral order of nature will not be inverted. The experience of the past ought to teach us that punishment in some form will ever overtake crime. If the parent omits proper correction, it devolves upon the schoolmaster to apply it if he also be compelled by public authority to neglect and evade his duty, the necessary performance will only be transferred from the ratan and the school-house to the locust and the prison.

THE POTATO.

HE potato belongs to the family Solanaceae, and is, therefore, closely allied to the narcotics, henbane, tobacco, and belladonna, as well as to the esculents, egg-plant and tomato. It is said to contain nicotina, though in small quantity, and principally in the portions exposed to the light.

NATIVE COUNTRY.

Humboldt maintains that the native country of the potato is unknown, as it is never found except in a state of cultivation. He asserts that it is not, as supposed, indigenous to Peru, he and M. Bompland having herborized along the Cordilleras without finding a single specimen of it in the wild state. This assertion is certainly erroneous, for at that very time Pavon, author of the Flora Peruviana, wrote that "the solanum tube. rosum grows wild in the environs of Lima, and fourteen leagues from Lima on the coast; and I myself have found it in Chili." Caldeleugh brought from Rio Janeiro two tubers of the wild potato, which he represented as growing in great profusion in ravines near Valparaiso, where it is termed maglia by the natives, but it is not employed for any purpose. The plant is sometimes found growing wild in Mexico, but is supposed to have been introduced by Spanish settlers.

INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE.

It is most likely that the potato'was introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh into Ireland, for Mr. Thomas Herriott, one of Sir Walter's company, "These roots ous describes a plant called "openawk" by the natives: the round, some as big as walnuts, others much larger; they grow in a wisen soil, many hanging together as if fixed on ropes; they are good othergither boiled or roasted." Gerard, in his Herbal, describes it accumore under the name Batata Virginiana, and gives an excellent figure of

it: "It groweth naturally in America, where it was first discovered, as report says, by Columbus, since which time I have received roots from Virginia, otherwise called Nurembaga, which grow and prosper in my garden as in their country." The name potato was evidently given to it because of its resemblance in form and qualities to the batata, or sweet potato, from which it was distinguished, until 1640 or even later, as the potato of Virginia.

In Ireland the plant came rapidly into favor; but in England, Scotland, and France it was, for a century, to be found only in flower gardens, being believed from its associations to possess poisonous qualities. In England a strong prejudice existed against using potatoes as food, because they were not mentioned in the Bible; and until 1760 they were not cultivated as a field crop. In 1728, Thomas Prentice, a Scotch laborer in Stirlingshire, began to raise them for his own use, and sold the surplus to his neighbors. The vegetable became very popular, and Prentice secured a competency. In France, the prejudice prevailed until a time of scarcity during the Revolution.

It appears that the potato was brought into Europe at an earlier period by a different channel. Clusius, residing at Vienna, received it in 1593 from the governor of Mons in Hainault, who, in the preceding year, had received it from the pope's legate, by whom it was called "tara toufli." It was then in use in Italy under this name; but the legate could not tell whether it came originally from Spain or America. In 1553 one Peter Cieca stated that "in Quito they have besides maize a tuberous root called papas, which they eat." Clusius regards this as the plant which he received from Flanders. It is therefore probable that the potato was brought to Spain at a very early period, for it would require several years to bring it into notice there, and a considerable time after that to render the Italians so familiar with it as to specify it by a popular name.

USES OF THE POTATO.

Food. Chemically considered, the potato is a most valuable article of food. It contains starch, albumen, and phosphorus, with a considerable proportion of salts of iron, lime, and soda-all the essentials necessary for maintenance of animal life. The nitrogenized, or, as Liebig terms them, the "tissue making" principles, are the more important; and the worth of any substance as food is determined by the amount of these which it contains. Viewed in this respect, 126 parts of potato dried at 212° F. are equal to 100 parts of wheat flour. It contains 84 per cent. of the amount of nitrogen in an equal weight of milk, and about 10 per cent. when compared with an equal weight of beef or white of egg. Six pounds of boiled potatoes per diem are sufficient food for a healthy man, although, according to some writers, a hearty Irishman eats about twelve pounds.

Starch. Starch may be prepared from the potato without difficulty by

crushing the tubers,

washing the pulp, and straining it several times through a fine sieve. The starch, with soluble substances, passes through, and, upon standing, soon falls to the bottom. The water should be poured off, the starch well washed and dried in a warm room. When thus prepared, it will keep unchanged for years. This starch is readily converted into dextrine or British gum, which is now much used as a substitute for gum arabic. It may also be converted into glucose or grape-sugar, by boiling it several days in dilute sulphuric acid, and then neutralizing the solution with chalk. The filtered liquid must be rapidly evaporated to a sirup, and then slowly concentrated, when it affords a granular sugar. Glucose, thus prepared, usually contains sulphate of lime, is therefore bitter, and can be used only in the adulteration of the cheaper sugars. It is manufactured very largely for this purpose in England.

Alcohol. In France potatoes are extensively used in the production of spirits, as one hundred pounds of potatoes afford thirty pounds of spirits. Frosted potatoes are used for making wine, which doubtless is quite as good as the turnip-juice guzzled in America under the name of champagne.

DISADVANTAGES ARISING FROM GENERAL USE OF THE POTATO.

The proprietor of a small plat of land is able to procure by little labor a sufficiency of a food which requires the aid of neither the miller nor the baker to render it edible. He is consequently independent of his fellows, and becomes indolent. The natural event is, that the bonds of society are loosened, and civil government is apt to become merely nominal. The ease with which the potato may be cultivated, its amazing productiveness, and its value as food make it a favorite in densely populated countries, and render it liable to become the standard, to the exclusion of other crops. It is especially subject to disease, even though due rotation. be observed; so that where, as in Ireland, it is the chief dependence of the lower classes, disastrous famines are at any time likely to occur. That these are not imaginary results is evident in Southern Ireland, where potatoes are the staff of life. The people are lawless and indolent, and the country has several times been devastated by dreadful famines.

DISEASE OF THE гOTATO.

Of the many diseases to which the potato is liable, the most destructive is the "gangrene" or rot. This may be dry, when the tuber shrivels and hardens; or moist, when it becomes wet and offensive. In the latter, gangrena humida, the tuber is at first hard, and the starch cells appear rudimentary; but as the disorganization advances, the substance becomes watery, and little globules of starch, set free, may be seen floating about in the fluid. In the gangrena sicca, or dry rot, the decomposition usually begins at the interior, so that the potato retains its form. At the diseased spot the fibers dry up, become white or brown, and an irregular

« PrejšnjaNaprej »