The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-24 00:00:00

Average Arnmait.
Swaledale and Wensleydale Banking Company,
Richmond .......
Stockton and Toietam County Banking Com-
pany, Stockt,•-
Storey and 'll,,•roas's Banking Company,
Shaftesbury . 8,231
Sheffield and Rcttord Bank, Sheffield ...
Suffolk Bankint:, Company, Ipswich
Wolverhampton avid Staffordshire Banking Com-
pany, Wolverhampton 34.:500
Wakefield and Barnsley Union Bank, Wakefield 14,425
Whitehaven Joint Stock Banking Company,
Whitehaven .
Warwick and Le;.init.gtou Banking Company,
Leamington
West of Englangl South Wales District
Bank, Bristol.
Wilts and I)orset Banking Compan), Salisbury 76,211
West Riding Union Banking Company, - Hud-
dersfield
Whitchurch and Ellesmere Banking Company,
Whitchurch
P. DEANS, Registrar e f Bank Returns
Stamps and TaxQs. Oct.. 18, 1845.

31,431

33,:14

33,419

THE POTATO MURRAIN.
(From the Medical Times.)
" Quid quisque vitet, nungnam
thulium eat in horas."—HORACE,
-" I,atet anguii in berba

'-VIRGIL,

We make no doubt that our readers will readily hear ul;af
we have to say upon a matter very important at this ti
both to the public and the profession—the present " dise3st-
amongst potatoes. It concerns us to inquire into the sui,ect,
as well from an interest which we feel in the fate of the 1.:00-,
who will be the chief sufferers by the calamity, as from a de-
sire we have to aid the wise working of an efficient system of
hygiene, by stating the bad effects which we have known t,i
follow the use of this depraved food.

The "potato murrain,." as it has been ridiculously calkl, 14
said to be comparatively new in this country, but has been
known in America for many years past. During the prescilt
season it has visited us to so serious an extent as to cans
considerable anxiety for the physical welfare of that class of
people who are in a great measure sustained by potato-f.'s!.
The "disease" has prevailed more or less extensivt-ly
throughout the land; the salubrious atmosphere and ktnd'v
soil of Ireland have not exempted that country from the
visitation, and it has swept with various severity through
the continent, but purticularly in Belgium, Germany, and

As the matter interests everybody, so we find that almost
everybody has got an opinion upon it. In the midst of Cos
mass of speculation, it is not to be wondered at that a po.itt
deal of folly as well as falsehood shold be let loose upon one's
credulity and wonderment. There are a certain class a
people yclept philosophers, and we fear we must include in
that very large class another scarcely less capacious, we mean
the soi-disant sect of chemists, who are able to see and real
to swear anything. Give them a subject with a crotchet in
it, and they will have an explanation ready in no time. The
one will prove, by a series of reasoning as difficult to refute
as to comprehend, that such and such causes are at work,
and, ergo, that such and such consequences must follow; the
other will prove the precise opposite, and confirm the truth
of his theory by chemical analysis, carried out with such de-
cimal minuteness, that, like the Tote tree in Mahomet's seventh
heaven, there is no going beyond it. The one silences you
with an awful profundity that neither himself nor anybody
else can fathom; the other knocks you down, or rather
tries to do, with ultimate analysis and the talismanic name
of Liebig. There are some people with whom this system ef
illustrious humbug operates like mesmerism, but we old-
fashioned folks don't belong to the class of greedy gullit,iss,
and we feel little inclined to trust either the words or the
figures of one-half of the Giessen-bitten boys of the present
day, without something more than their own proof,per se, of
the integrity of what they utter.
To return to our subject, as one upon which
microscopic, and chemical speculation are magnificently rife
just now, we find all sorts of theories propounded to account
for the mysterious phenomenon. The wise saws, who ;ore
great in the magic of the marvellous, consider the poteta
disease as in some sort a sign that the world is nearly as 01.1
as it ever will be, and that the present crop of tubers, thonelt
a bad one, is the last reaping we shall have. What n‘4..es-
sary connexion there is between the end of the world and the,
potato epidemic, or whether this said calamity is any proof t hat
the aforesaid globe is nearly worn out, we arc not able to say,
nor on this point do the mystery-mongers inform us. The phssii-
cal philosophers say electricity is at the bottom of jt all, or ilc se
that it is not at the bottom; in other words, that the
potatoes had not been electrified enough. Without telling
us to whose measurement, calculation, or instinctive sagacity
they are indebted for the fact, they gravely give us to r-
stand (if we had sufficient sagacity of belief for the fiat
that in those parts of the island and continent, not forgets he
America, in which the electricity above has behaved batter
to the territories below, and, to use a monied phrase, "has
come dosin handsomely," that in those said spots tins
potatoes are in their usual health and strength, and lookies.
" very much like themselves." If we were in the wood
for joking, as unfortunately we are not, we should say-
. that this sublime enunciation " looks very much like :a
whale." Taking advantage of the experience of that stupid.
old man who tried to pelt a lad nut of an apple-tree Is-it 4
tufts of grass, they suggest (the philosophers we mean) char.
we should compel the electricity, whether it chose or not, I
enhie dosrrr to the dust and-to-do its work as -Oink as
unto-, instead of idling away its time in visiting anionest t :}FR
di-Lis, and doing no good at all. Some propose to d:s.erh
and displace the said fluid by the erection of multitielss
iron rods, well spiked, bristling like bayonets, and seenlitc;
to say that they don't mean to be trifled with ; others
gest that it shall be invited to sundry iron pots, made at-
tractive by being permanently electrified; and others pro-
pose to traverse the earth with metallic culverts fog thA
electricity to. run up and down in. "In the name if tha
prophet—figs.' These sublime ingenuitics, these vast erc:,-
tions of fancy, these mighty minds in travail with migl.ty
projects, which

• .
Seem as 'twere
An ocean in labour an ocean to bear,
all tend to the solemn secret of growing potatoes ! Wont
that as much talent were brought to bear upon the nue a
hidden and important. secret of cooking them ! The physical
philosophers aver, and they may safely do so for any practie-,I
disproof they are likely to meet with, that if only means 1,3
employed which any one of them proposes, we may always -
eulate upon an immunity from potato disease. El
doubt it for a moment; we feel as certain of it as of catch' • s
sparrows by throwing salt upon their tails
Less sublime and speculative than the physical phil'isn.
pliers, but far more practical and minute, come the micro-
scopists to settle the question of the potato epidemic. Thaw
see deeply into the depths of things, and of course are ex -
pected to draw therefrom much valuable matter that to,-
aided optics must always be strangers to. In fact,
man with a microscope may see anything ; and, Ili
" seeing is believing," we see no just- cause why 1,3
should be expected to doubt anything. We antici-
pate, consequently, that the time is not very far distant when
credulity, properly so called, will be regularly defunct, awl
such people as our forefathers would have called " easy ct
belief," will be bond fide matter of fact men under the iirc-
sistable persuasion and proof of the microscope. This instill-
ment, as we have said, has been brought to bear, with artil-
lery-like precision, though with less point, upon the " plat
murrain,' and wonderful have been the discoveries in con,-
quence! Fungi of all sorts, sizes, and shapes, and colour-,,,
have been found fattening themselves, cormorant like, nvot
the poor potato; sporules, granules, cells, and dust that de-
served no better name, all have been found upon the patat,;
and many a discoverer has been obliged to rub up his Grad%
to ftirnish technicals for the unknown objects that have two.
bled in the way of his observation. Talk of special trabri,
they go nothing so fast as discovery has lately gone along
line of damaged potatoes!
Next come the chemists, with their prodigal paraphernalia
of apparatus and tests, to acquaint us with the malady (41113
potato. They find alkalies where acids ought to be, and Oa
converse; they state, to a shadow of a shade, the partial!:
blush of blue which iodine gives the sickly potato, in cc
trast with what it gives the potato that is sound; they
us, precisely, what the former has lost in mealiness and pt.-,
in waxiness—what is due to the condition of the starch, •
_

„.
mucilage, and other such things—that good potatoes Lisr
per cent. by drying at a gentle heat, whilst the bad ones 1
77 !—and, finally, the man with a chafing dish, glass '
oxide of copper, caustic potash, and other like simples, Asa'
his wand, and, le! an ultimate analysis settles the point
once, by proving that some delicate decimal is wanting k
make up the due amount of a certain constituent which t,
been most rascally robbed of ” its fair proportions" by allot', .
certain one! "So much for Buckingham!"
After this amount of detail, to say nothing of the ammo
of trouble we have had in practically getting it ready,
may perhaps claim a hearing for ourselves. We, "the pinr
nominative singular," in our triumph of tripod, feel that t'
our right to state both what we know, and what we think.'
upon the matter at issue.
We have, looked at the electricity with "our mind's eye,
and, like Mathews in the play, can "see nothing at all i;
it." We have looked through the microscope, and have seeit
ten thousand curious sights in the morbid potatoe, but nos
thing equal to what we have seen in a pinch of musty Itor,e
manure. We have tortured the re or potatoe in retorts, er ,;-
cibles, and tubes of glass, but products and educts have
us nothing more than we knew aforetime. Amidst tide
Babel of investigation and discowery, it occurred to us tc
think that there might be something " rotten in the statt-
of"—the potatoe! And after wiping front our eyes thr
films created by philosophy and fancy, we saw a cleat
evidence of a simple decomposition in this said tuber!
what is there that philosophers cannot find worthy to to
about, microscopists to stare at, and chemists to annlyse,.ie-
rottenness! NI, e have always thought it a wonderful lick.
for minute investigation, and such it has proved to be, s
the present condition of the potatoe crops can testify.
To close this part of our subject, for we shall take occasio•-.
to complete it finally in another article, we give it as our de-
cided opinion that "potato disease" and "potato inurriiiii"
are merely idle terms that bear 110 relation whatever t-
existent things. There is no "disease," no "murrain,'
properly so called ; the potatoes aro just rotten, and tha
is the long and the short of it. The discolouration, (-our
mencing in this spot, and extending to that, the rofs,
ness, the waxiness, the fetor, all these things, and menf•
more such like, we have seen a score time 4s
potatoes that have spontaneously rotted in a damp dar,
cellar. We can confirm what the microscopists and ilia
mists say about appearances and reactions, and tell then
plenty of untold truths besides; but not potatoes only, an'
vegetable of similar composition will give like results wh
in a state of decay. These acids, alkalies, atoin!c defe,
sporules, granules, ruptured cells, dust, dirt, &c., are in
t sequence of the potato mischief, and not a cause of it. T1:o“-..
simple observe.
is nothing new in the circumstance; we have been faufill
,r
t andof et
taking
enoitnicaent.han ourselves a
It is no novelty in this country, any more than I- 1
whowith aitretiorderchilitidttexal
e sew tern
it attracts attention because of the almost universality of its'
prevalence. And has not the cause been as universal .?
CAT
water is_the fountain head! Take our word for it, tll(,r,
no mystery in the affair; cloudy skies and drenching raip
have done-it all !•

- _
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