The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-30 00:00:00

THE POTATO MURRAIN.

(From the Medical
enceOutroletandeerdaonfllaasgtedwseteak,teitofwtihlle br.ezerseeamtembrcepredc,fhpaccl;aeftaarei
We' enumerated with some care, EV Id not a little curiosity, 11
the learned opinions which haess been lavished upain.
itthicisa
common-place subject, and, after discarding such.sub
as we had no occasion for, came to the unpretending
conclu-
sion that the potatoes are rott en 1
Whether the potatoes complained of be really rotten, as we
we
say, or in a " morbid states" as some other people say, has
little to do with two questions naturally arising out of
and
circumstance, viz., are those potatoes fit to be eaten, a
what are the poor to do wit] tout them? The former is espe-
cially a query for ourselves t so answer ; the latter rather be-
longs to 3linisters of State, poli _deal economists, and parish
guardians.
unfit
t food,pota mighttoesinl prastailemirtb
tacte ed
itas sbaamdcori priori.
ion are totally
for It is well
known that vegetable matte rit i a state of ptuhteremseanscte,
partei in-
nutritive, commencing or confirmed, he ru or!ly. for .
organs,nut rit e,a
abutd
even also
epoaP'as.boini
eof irritating the t the
system.
wheat," as the farmers tes-na it, never bakes
into spongy,
agismpernautatridy
sweet. The refermentati an • which bread undergoes
substantial bread, but rein al* s " sad," soft, and nauseously
seowlislheyn
bk37,t,rinapainseystrpa,sditamispcaaltraado,
an approach
papnrclaawalhitcahthise.
,sasu_inccee..ed. eduwilth
con-
dition. Either is unfit for foe id, and serious. mischiet
often been known to follow it, ; u se. History.ls familiar s
instances of epidemics conseq uei it upon eating the unsound
mosta soun
corn grown during wet and ch y seasons. One of h
figurative adventures in the ci assi cal writings is amongst the
earliest references to this we tl-ks 'own fact. The most. an-
cient plague mentioned by pre (fano authors occurred during
the sovereignty of King At ,ham. q ; it ,desolated Tin
and was the occasion of the . Irgons uric exk_sedition for
~
ob-
taining the Golden Fleece and . consail,'lng the o:
.
acle at Qs, -
this. That plague is said to ha, se beesl occasional by the
wrath of Ino, who, to revenge: hi ;rsel f on Nephele, proo:^•ed
the pestilence of poisoning all_ th a grain which had been sown
in the earth. It is not sieces nary to inform the classical
reader that Nephele signifies a " cloud," and that hence, as an
old scholastic observes, in this tradition of a universal ma-
lady is shadowed forth tb e vi tiation of grain by means of
clouds, showers, and incle eneul . seasons, as well as in the same
legend are detailed the terrible effects which grain so dis-
tempered is capable of prods cing. We learn from Proco-
pius lib. ii., cap. 22) that during the reign of Justi-
nian a fearful pestilence swept. through a vast portion of the
Roman era Ore, and seemed to be referrible to no cause e-t,
cept the use of unsound gri in. When Caesar besieged 7:flex-
seilles, a pestilence prevails d, and affected his whole ginny,
and Was supposed to be ow ing to a bad kind of farinaceou;
food. "Panico enim cetera, atque hordeo corru pto, omnea
(Scil Massiliences) alebantu:r," &c. (De Bello Civili., lib. ii.
22). In 1529 an epidemic disease spread throughout Nor-
way, Denmark, Holland, and Flanders, and appeared at Ham-
burg, Bremen, Lubeck, Dantzic, and Cologne. In those dis-
tricts birds were frequently seen to fall dead from the trees,
and were found to have small abscesses about them, espe-
cially under their wings, and Schiller (de Peste Britannica)
attributed all these things to a moist cloudy state of the at-
mosphere long prevalent; but other more accurate observers
referred them to the use of impoverished and rotten grain
(Schenck. Obs., p. 764). The pestilential disease which ra
vished Messina in 1554, so well described by G. Agrico's
(apud Schenck., p. 764), seemed to be for the most part at-
tributable to the use of deteriorated farinacea. Forestus im-
putes the plague which appeared at Delft in the year "1557
to the eating of mouldy grain which had long been kept up
by the merchants in a time of scarcity. At the saute time
a similar disease prevailed in Spain; many died of it, and
their bodies were found covered with purple spots. Coinci-
dent with this visitation was a rottenn, and mouldy state of
the grain, the consequence of a cloudy and very wet summer
(see De Thou's " History of his own Times," vol. 2.) Sir John
Pringle remarks that he has beard of dysenteric affections
being frequent among the common people on the Continent,
who chiefly live on grain, and that these affections are especi-
ally prevalent when the crops are found to have been injured
by wet and cloudy weather. An epidemic fever, described
by Silvias de la Boe, raged at Leyden in 1669, and was gene-
rally attributed to the unsound vegetable food. In 1690 the
summer was very rainy and hot in Italy, and most of the
crops were rotten or mildewed. In the year following, when
this grain was eaten, a general and fatal epidemic prevailed
(Webster on "Epidemic Diseases," vol. i,, p. 332). In 1693,
the corn in various places was gathered in an unripe er rotten
state, and; subsequently, those places were visited by putrid
fevers and dysentenes—wounds degenerated into ulcers, blis-
ters were followed by modifications (Webster, op. cit).
In the description given by Gregorius Horstius of a fatal
epidemic, the malady is chiefly attributed to the use of a bad
farinaceous food. " Causes hujus affectus quod attinet, ex
cegrotantium relatione acire licet, quod externa cause cora-
muniter in alimento, ad nutriendum minus idoneo et impro •
portionato, consistat dum pauperis rebus ad vitam necessariis
destituti, panem impurum et male coctum longo tempo tem-
pore in summa famis urgentia, devorant," &c.—(Greg. Horst.
op. vol. ii., lib. 8.) A similar report upon this epidemic is
made by Sennertus in his chapter. " De febre maligno cum
spasmo." In 1816, the crops in this country were seriously
injured by the profuse rains which fell, and, subsequently,
when the grain was made use of, dysentery and typhus fever
became prevalent. In the following year, in consequence of
the heavy rains which fell between the months of January
and March, most of the crops in Bengal were vitiated ; and
shortly after this, and seemingly as an effect of it, came the
cholera. And the laborious train of investigation pursued by
Dr. Tytler, renders it more than probable that fatal disease
owed its eastern origin and progress mainly to the use of de-
teriorated grain, chiefly rice. (See Tytler on the Morbus
Oryzeus, passim.) Dr. Tytler fed a healthy young goat
with Ouse rice ; it caused a diminution of appetite, excessiva
thirst, weakness, stupidity, watery eyes, and apparent suf-
fering. The animal died in forty-two hours from the com-
mencement of the experiment. the only morbid appearance
of moment was an " erythematic inflammation," extending
from the stomoch to the intestines. In several instances
mentioned by Dr. Tytler, the effects of this rice upon the
human subject were very serious. (Op. cit. p. 10.) Some
very remarkable cases in proof of the bad effects of unsound
grain taken as food are recorded in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, Nos. 83, 84, 85, and 98 ; and in Med. Museum, toms
ii., p. 449. The particulars are briefly these ;—ln 1762, 3.
Downing, his wife, and six children, residing at the village
of Watisham, were seized with violent pains in the feet, legs,
and thighs, the other parts not suffering materially. The
affected limbs grew black, gangrenous, and fell off. The
father, most triflingly attacked, was fortunate enough not to
lose a limb. A child, four months old, died before any of
the members separated. The mother, three girls, and 'two
boys lost, collectively, seven legs and four feet. The Rev.
Mr. Bones, minister of the parish, in answer to questions put
by Dr. Baker, states that they made their bread, the summer
before, of what is called clog wheat. The grain was da-
maged; it had been laid, gathered, and thrashed separately ;
it was not mildewed or grown, but discoloured, and smaller
than the rest. It made bad bread and worse puddings. We
have not space to go further into detail, or we could give
many more examples derived from history, and some from
personal observation, of the baneful or fatal consequences
which have followed the alimentary use of unsound grain.
Er uno disco omnes—others of the farinacea, similarly dis-
eased or rotten, would be likely, if taken as food, to be pro-
ductive of equally bad effects. Hence, as we said at the
outset, we might a priori assume that the present dete-
riorated potatoes would not only furnish little nutriment, but
might be actually poisonous to those who partook of them.
The assumption would be perfectly logical, and we should be
as perfectly justified in making it, did we not prefer the a
posteriori argument as being more in accordance with the
matter-of-fact subject of which we are treating. And it le
one not to be disregarded or trifled with ; calamitous conse-
quences may, and most likely will, follow the eating of these
corrupted potatoes; already, indeed, they have begun the
work of mischief; and it behoves the profession to consider
well the circumstances. What further we have to say upon
these will be continued in our next article.