cation will remove deafness.

There still exists, however, a belief that onion-juice is the best
hair-restorer in the market, in spite of its disagreeable smell.

It would take too long to mention all the virtues that have been
claimed, with more or less reason, for all the members of the _Allium_
genus, but it is a curious fact that the onion, which relieves dyspepsia
and aids the digestion of some, is a certain cause of indigestion in
others. Is it not said that Napoleon, who was a martyr to indigestion,
lost the Battle of Leipsic through having partaken of a too hurried meal
of beefsteak and onions? It is a savoury dish, but has worked woe to
many. One does not wonder that the old writers declared that onions
brought bad dreams--if they were eaten raw, or badly cooked, at late
supper.

It is open to grave doubt whether the author of The Family Dictionary
was right in saying that 'they that will eat onions daily will enjoy
better health than otherwise.' What is one man's meat is another man's
poison; and certainly there is no article in common use which produces
such opposite effects upon the human system as the onion. It has often
been found beneficial to individuals in feverish attacks, and yet the
malingerers in our garrison hospitals know well how to promote febrile
symptoms by a hearty consumption of garlic.

A fitting conclusion to this chapter will be the summary of Sir John
Sinclair, the author of a Code of Health and Longevity:

'Onyons in physick winneth no consent,
To cholerick folke they are no nutriment;
By Galen's rule, such as phlegmatic are
A stomacke good within them do prepare.
Weak appetites they comfort, and the face
With cheerful colour evermore they grace,
And when the head is naked left of hair,
Onyons, being sod or stamp'd, again repair.'

CHAPTER XIII.

THE STORY OF A TUBER.

The planting of a tuber by Clusius, in 1588, in the Botanical Gardens at
Vienna, is often referred to as the introduction of the potato into
Europe. As a matter of fact, however, this was not the first planting,
for the Spaniards brought the real potato--_Solanum tuberosum_--home to
Spain about 1580. From Spain it extended to Italy, and became at once a
common article of food there. From Spain it also extended to Belgium,
and was cultivated there; and it was from a Belgian that Clusius got the
roots which he planted at Vienna in 1588.

Then, again, it has been said that Christopher Col