rage not more than ten per cent of actual dry beef--of that which
forms the living muscle of the animal that feeds upon it--with three per
cent of fat, and fifty of starch. And because of this chemical
composition, our southern neighbours think wheaten flour the most
nourishing, the most refined, and the most civilized of all food.

But Professor Johnston, in the recent edition of his Elements,[28] tells
us, that, from experiments made in the laboratory of the Agricultural
Chemistry Association of Scotland, it turns out that oats are far richer
in all the three things above named than the best wheat flour grown in any
part of England--that they contain eighteen or twenty per cent of that
which forms muscle, five to eight of fat, and sixty-five of starch. The
account, therefore, between shelled oats (groats) and fine wheaten flour
stands thus. One hundred pounds of each contain--

Wheat. Oats.
Muscular matter, 10 lbs. 18 lbs.
Fat, 3 ... 6 ...
Starch, 50 ... 65 ...
------ ------
63 lbs. 89 lbs.

What do you say to these numbers, Mr Cockney?--You won't pity us, Scotch
oatmeal-eaters, any more, we guess. Experience and science are both on our
side. What makes your race-horses the best in the world, may be expected
to make our peasantry the best too. We offer you, therefore, a fair bet.
You shall take ten English ploughmen, and feed them upon two pounds and
a-half of wheaten flour a-day, and we shall take as many Scotch ploughmen,
and feed them upon the same weight of oatmeal a-day--_if they can eat so
much_, for that is doubtful--and we shall back our men against yours for
any sum you like. They shall walk, run, work--or fight you, if you like
it--and they shall thrash you to your heart's content. We should like to
convince you that Scotch parritch has some real solid metal in it.

We back the oatcake and the porridge against all the wheaten messes in the
world. We defy your homemade bread, your baker's bread, your household
bread, your leaven bread, and your brown Georges--your fancy bread and
your raisin bread--your baps, rolls, scones, muffins, crumpets, and
cookies--your bricks, biscuits, bakes, and rusks--your Bath buns and your
sally luns--your tea-cakes, and saffron-cakes, and slim-cakes, and
plank-cakes, and pan-cakes, and soda-cakes, and currant-cakes, and
sponge-cakes, and s