The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

since the Mirzapore merchants or brokers are always the
buyers; and as they have to proceed down to Calcutta, a
distance of 500 miles, to make their purchases, expense
and delay would be saved by sending the article at once
to the market of consumption.
The Swan River Brats mentions further discoveries of
minerals in Western Australia. Traces of a mine of cop-
per or lead, indications of coal, and specimens of ore; sup-
posed to be of tin or platina, have presented themselves,
and, according to the letter writers of the district, have
created the usual " excitement." This is an encouraging
fact at the present moment, when it is all but universally
acknowledged that emigration on an extensive scale is the
only certain resource to rid us of a large poiti.on of the
evils, with which the industrial interests of Ens country
and of Ireland are surrounded:

DR. ALFRED SMEE ON THE POTATOE PLANT

AND ITS DISEASE.

The last number of the New Quarterly Review; just
published, contains an excellent analysis of a work on the -
potat,oe plant, its uses and properties, together with the
cause of the present malady, by Alfred Same, F.R.S.,
surgeon to the Bank of England, from which, as the
subject is a most interesting one at the present moment,
we shall take the liberty of borrowing a few facts.. The
writer describes the potatoc as chiefly valuable from the
fact that it is the only article of diet which contains in
itself all which is requisite for the support of man. It
contains carbon for the lungs, nitrogen for the muscles,
phosphorus and iron for the blood, lime for. the bones,
with hydrogen, sulphur, and, in fact, all the elements
required for nutrition ; end these at a cheaper rate than-
they can be derived from any other article of food. From
some experiments made in Glasgow, it was found. that
61b. per diem of potatoes alone were amply sufficient for
the support of -a man; and therefore, at the ordinary
price of the root, Id. per day would be the cost of living,
which is robably the lowest at which a human being
could he d.

Anotb !- valuable property of the root is the fact, that
for the 1,-; ,ur and space required for its cultivation, it
affords e alimentary matter than any other plant
whatew v. The ground has but :to be dug, the.seed
planted bed up, gathered, and.the crop is at once fit
for cul.' ar, purposes. "In practice," says Mr. Smee,
" ever) ,naa with an acre of land can, by means of the
potatoe, support himself and family; and, instead of re-
quiring anything from without, may lip e independently
and careless of all surrounding creatures and objeats. '
But from this very property has arisen the danger of de-
pendence upon the root as the sole or chief support of a
people. " A nation of potatoe-eaters does not feel those
relations and dependencies which bind other societies
together." * * " The relations between the labourer
.and the farmer, the miller and the baker, do not exist;
and, in the end, each man is in his own person king,
magistrate, and subject, not caring for the assistance nor
fearing the displeasure of any other human being." We
have here the source of the evils existing in Ireland
plainly traced. Ireland is a nation of potatoe-eaters ;
and a single year's failure of a crop, which cannot be
preserved or stored up for such an emergency, precipi-
tates such a nation into the jaws of famine.

The precise time at which the present disease in pota-
toes first appeared, is not every clearly ascertained. In
this country it was first pointed out by Dr.. Bell Salter,
in the Gardeners' Chronicle, in August, 1845. There
can be no doubt, however, of its partial existence in the
preceding year. It was even then prevalent in Europe.
A German writer, Von Martins, states in a very scarce
treatise, ttat the disease has existed in Germany since
the year IE3O, and that in November of the year 1841,
Dr. Znehcariani wrote a paper upon the disease, which
was read in the 'Royal Bavarian Academy of Arts. In
1810 the malady spread rapidly through the Bavarian
Palatinate, which caused inquiry ; and on the 27th of
February, the mischief was considered so serious that
Government issued an order for the Academy to inquire
into the malady—a task which was undertaken by Mar-
tius,-whose conclusions are considered imperfect, owing
to the fact that he confined
_his observations to the state
of the tubers. Mr. Since, however, has paid attention to
the plant as a whole. His conclusion is, that the disease
is mortification or gangrene, commencing so,netitoes in
the leaf and being propagated down th stal and at
other times commencing at the root am! Bran !ng up-
wards. Sometimes it attacks the base of t. est &.Ic, cut-
ting off the nourishment from the upper po, Lion, which
accounts for the sudden perishing of the aboveground
portions of the plants, whole fields of which have been
known to wither up in a few hoars. The gangrene of the
potatoe itself is of two descriptions, moist and dry. In
the moist gangrene it is feu, d tuft the cells contain a
very small quantity of starch ; and in the advanced stage
these cells break up into a brownish material, and starch
globules are found floating about in a fluid among broken-
down cells and spiral vessels. In the dry gangrene (gan-
grena sieca) the potatoe retains its outer form ; but on
cutting it open, an irregular cavity will often be found in
the centre, taking the form of an imperfect X. To form
this cavity the mass of the potatoe has shrivelled up, and
presents either a white or brown appearance. The matter
left is found to consist of starch globules. The ultra
result, in both descriptions of disease, seems to be the
complete disorganisation of the cellular formation of the
interior of the root: The Reviewer states that he has
ascertained from starch-makers, that they are unable to
procure one-half the usual quantity of starch from da-
maged potatoes—a fact which shews the fallacy of analyses
of potatoes, the result of such analyses being generally to
slew that they arealmost converted into starch.

The causes of this disease have been variously attempt-
ed to be- acceuntcd for. Mr. Since himself has entered
upon an -inquiry, into the subject, upon a principle which
appears to us well calculated to elicit the truth. The
death of a vegetable; he says, is eeferahle to causes simi-
lar to those winch occasion the death of a human being ;
and he has pursued- the same mode of conducting the
inquiry as to the causes of destruction of the potatoe.
Man is htflueneed by temperature, light, electricity, ba-
rometric pressure, hygrometric state of the atmosphere,
the action of new material as food,- morbid poisons, 'air
for respiration, parasites drawing nourishment from the
body, thc. ; but he maintains that to none of the influ-
ences parallel to these the origin of the disease is attribu-
table,. although souse are found to hasten its progress.
The disease is rife upon all descriptions of soil, with 'all
clegrees of moisture and all sorts of manure. He finds,
however, that the plant is freeiist from disease When groWn
upon uninanured soil, manure cawing it to assume a very
succulent and cellular character. The fungi found upon
the potatoe have been said by some to be the cause of its
destruction ; but Mr. Smee proves that it is only an auxi-
liary, which comes on after death has ensued. The real
source, of the disease he finds to be a small insect, the
aphis' xastator, which is to be found feeding, either alone
or in company with others,. on the under 'surface of the
leaves. The colour of this is various. In early life it is
nearly transparent ; later it is of an olive colour ; at other
times it is grass greeri; and at a later period of a reddish
colour. The insect fastens itself by a peculiar apparatus
upon the leaves, and' derives its nourishment by sucking
the juices. It conies upon the potatoe plant in a winged
state, and propagates with amazing rapidity, until a wfTele
field or district is destroyed, when the whole. take wing-
again in a vast cloud, and fly to some new locality. Dr.
Smee has observed them to settle upon his own person in
the streets of London.
- .Lest this latter statement should appear ible, the
reviewer gives an extract from the letter of a friend cor-
roborating it. The writer says, that being in the midland
counties from the Middle to the end of September, he was
much annoyed by small flies settling upon him ; and on
reading a notice of the work; and being shown thaaphis,
he recognised the species of 'insect by which he hadbeen
tormented. The ;lame insects have been noticed in Many
other potatoe distrias throughout the country.
Smee.finds that the destroyer does not confine it-
self to the potatoe plant. The hi. sip is similarly affected
to the potatoe in many parts of the country ; the carrot
' is also affected ; there is scarcely any winter spinach left ;
and even the horse-radish., which is at present coming to
the London market, is extensively diseased. The insect
is also found preying upon Indian corn and wheat, but
not to such an extent as upon other roots.
The visitation of the aphides and other insects is not a
novelty in the history of the world. Our author refers to.
the Bth chapter of kaodus, in which we are told of the
Egyptians being plagued with an immense multiplication
of lice. The same chapter states that the laud was cor-
rupted by reason of a swarm of flies. In the Book of
Joel an account is gig en •of the (sheet of this excessive
increase of insects—" For a nation has come-up upon any
land, strong and without number" ; and " the field is
wasted, the land mourneth ; for thtreorn is wasted, the
new wine is dried up, and the oil languisheth." In the
2nd chapter of the same honk, a fearful description is
given of another insect plague, where they are spoken of
as the army of the Lord, troilg tot execute his word.
Similar visitations are recorded in modern history. In
1785 France was raw,ged hy. the grub of the cockchafer.
In 1688 the hedges and tress in the county of Galway,
Ireland, were denuded of their leaves by cockchafers, and
at midsummer the country wore tins appearance of the
depth of winter. The visitations of locusts have been
often recorded, both in Holy Writ and in history, ancient
and modern; awl Gilbert White states, that in the sultry
season of 1783, his honeysuckles, which were one week
most beautiful, became in the next completely loathsome,
being enveloped in a vineii substance, and loaded with
black aphides, or smother-flies. - • .
The reviewer considers that the strongest Proof that
the destruction is attributable to these insects, is the fact
that not-only are they universally found-upon the diseased
potatoe plant, but upon all plants•similarly affected. That
there is any remedy within human reach, he does not be-
lieve. The insects, howeVer, he says, are kept within
bounds by ladybirds, larva of the .gaireck.-ing hymenep-
aeneeeewigs, some species of acari, epiders, and soft-bill
birds, which should therefore be protected. In the mean
time, it is desirable to isolate the crops -Which are liable
to be affected by the malady.

The wheat plant in'the North of Ei;(o.and is comine. up
-0
everywhere most vigorously. The frost Boas not.T.eeln to
have done it any injury. its powers of resisting cold arc
almost equal to its power,T, of resisting heat, and the plant
has grown and improved in colour 711064 the snow..
CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE --A pat.:44,lW been obtained
by Messrs. W. G. and-W. I..'avht?, for an inventor. to he
applied to all furnaces constrt.nied in the ordinary manner
with open as for effecting aXTIOY,:‘ perfect conthiytion
of the inflammable gases audancon, miler! (-Arbon. It enn-
fist's, first, in the application of an etatmstin9- and blowing
apparatus ; and, secondly, in a pyadiar distribution or ar-
rangement of the smoke tines, !,zi a. to be adapted to the
operation of i,:uch Griparatus. k fan: or blower; is applied .
to the flue just before the-rentrant,e tO the chimney, to
arrest the smoke and on-mistimed gvtes, and force them
hyoughli nue, leading therefrom, and oriepi"--g,
on, ' to the
eicad plate at or pear the front of the fire, 1,,,r,,. - By this
means the whol:, is passed over ilq! it, ear tb,, i foal,
where it is. constontal, instead of ,-..—• -' • --cen.. ,
~.,,,,t9-: up the chimney
unconsumed.