ANCIENT IRISH MEDICINE 
dillisk as it is called. This is a species of seaweed, 
often of dark purplish color, that grew on the rocks 
along the seashore and that had a not unpleasant 
salty taste. We used to have it for sale in the drug 
stores but also even in the grocery stores of the Irish 
districts in this country. It is, I believe, a form of 
fungus that contains no nutritive qualities to any 
extent but represents food material that provides a 
certain amount of roughage and residue for the in- 
testines. It was the equivalent for the Irish of bran 
and mushrooms and other foodstuffs that are now 
being recommended because they supply residual 
material that encourages intestinal peristalsis and 
thus lessens the necessity for taking laxatives. 
The Irish always serve potatoes with the jackets 
on and anyone who has ever tasted real Irish 
potatoes, especially when freshly dug, knows that 
they deserve to be treated as a special separate 
course for they are extremely tasty. Not infre- 
quently the skins of the potatoes also were eaten 
and this not so much because the Irish felt the need 
of the additional food material but because the 
skins were tasty and contained certain mineral salts 
which are important for nutrition. Their natural 
instinct led them to take the skins because this sup- 
plied elements for bodily nutrition that were needed 
and would not otherwise be obtained. The Irish 
also realized something of the value of producing 
an appetite when the diet was without variety and 
therefore not likely to be particularly palatable. We 
hear of “potatoes and point” as a joke, but unfortu- 
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