stead of being
subjected to the barbarous treatment described above, they should be
granted a painless death by chloroform or some other anaesthetic.

I am, Sir, yours truly,

POTATOPHIL.

* * * * *

ERIN'S INCUBUS.

SIR,--A great deal of fuss is being made over Irish potato-cakes. Why
Irish? The tradition that the potato is the Irish national vegetable
is a hoary fallacy that needs to be exploded once and for all. It is
nothing of the sort. The potato was introduced into the British Isles
by Sir WALTER RALEIGH, a truculent Elizabethan imperialist of the
worst type, transplanted into Ireland by the English garrison, and
fostered by them for the impoverishment of the Irish physique. The
deliberations of the National Convention now sitting in Dublin will
be doomed to disaster unless they insist, as the first plank of their
programme, on the elimination of this ill-omened root. If ST. PATRICK
had only lived a few centuries later he would have treated the potato
as he did the frogs and snakes.

I am, Sir, Yours rebelliously,

SHANE FINN.

***

A DANGEROUS DISH.

SIR,--May I put in a mild _caveat_ against excessive indulgence in
potato-cakes, based on an experience in my undergraduate days at
Trinity College, Cambridge, when WHEWELL was Master? One Sunday I was
invited to supper at the MASTER'S, and a dish of potato-cakes formed
part of the collation. WHEWELL was a man of robust physique and hearty
appetite, and I noted that he ate no fewer than thirteen, considerably
more than half the total. Whether it was owing to the unlucky number
or the richness of the cakes I cannot say, but the fact remains that
the MASTER was seriously indisposed on the following day and unable
to deliver a lecture on the Stoic Philosophy, to which I had greatly
looked forward. I cannot help thinking that PYTHAGORAS, who enjoined
his disciples to "abstain from beans," would, if he were now alive,
be inclined to revise that cryptic precept and bid us "abstain from
potatoes," or, at any rate, from over-indulgence in hot potato-cakes.

I am, Sir, Yours faithfully,

CANTAB.

***

WANTED--A NEW NAME.

SIR,--If a thing is to make a success a good name is indispensable.
The potato has been handicapped for centuries by its ridiculous name,
which is almost as cumbrous as "cauliflower" and even more unsightly
to the eye. It is futile to talk of a "tuber" since that means a hump
or bump or