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 News 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 portion of the
evils, with which the industrial interests of this 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
potatoe plant, its uses and properties, together with the
cause of the present malady, by Alfred Smee, 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
wrilar describes the potatoe as chiefly valuable from the
fac hat 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; and these at a cheaper rate than
they can be derived from any other article of food. Front •
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, led. per day would be the cost of living,
which is robably the lowest at which a human being
could be d.

Anotb a valuable property of the root is the fact, that
for the I ,ur and space required for its. cultivation, it
affords -.-at e alimentary matter than any other plant
whatev( r. The ground has but to be dug, the seed
planted. ?a hed up, gathered, and the crop is at once fit
for cut.. an, purposes. "In practice," says Mr. Smee,
" ever) man with an acre of land can, by means of the
potatoe, support himself and fatuity; and, instead of re-
quiring anything from without, may live independently, ,
and careleg's of all surrounding creatures and objects., -
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 bin 4 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 very 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 Martius, states in a very scarce
treatise, that the disease has existed in Germany since
the year 1830, and that in November of the year 1841,
•
Dr. Zuchcariani wrote a paper upon the disease, which
was read in the Royal Bavarian Academy of Arts. In
1840 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-
tins, whose conclusions are considered imperfect, owing
to the fact that he confined his observations to the state
of the tubers. Mr. Smee, however, has paid attention to
the plant as a whole. His conclusion -is, that the disease
is mortification or gangrene, commencing ----netimes in
the leaf and being propagated down th, sta , and at
other times commencing at the root and dean Ing up-
wards. Sometimes it attacks the base of est k, cut-
ting off the nourishment from the upper pta 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 hours. The gangrene of the
potatoe itself is of two descriptions, moist and dry. In
the moist gangrene it is fou, d t tat 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
shew that they are almost converted into starch.
The causes of this disease have been variously attempt-
ed to be accounted for. Mr. Smee himself has entered
upon an inquiry into the subject, upon a principle which
appears to us well caMuLated. to elicit the truth. The
death of a vegetable, he says, is referable to causes simi-
lar to those which 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 influenced 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, &c. ; but he maintains that to none of the influ-
ences parallel to these the origin of the disease is attribu-
table, although some are found to hasten its progress.
The disease is rife upon all descriptions of soil, with all
degrees of moisture and all sorts of manure. He finds,
however, that the plant is freeest from disease when grown
upon unmanured soil, manure causing 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
apins yastator, 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 green ; 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 comes upon the potatoe plant in a winged
state, and propagates with amazing rapidity, until a whole
field or district is destroyed, when the whole take wing
agria 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 incredible, 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
rcaling a notice of the work, and being shewn the ahis,
he recognised the species of insect by which he had been
tormented. The sane insects have been noticed in many
other potatoe districts throughout the country.
Dr. Smee finds that the destroyer does not confine it-
self to the potatoe plant. The turnip 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 Exodus, in which we are told of the
Egyptians being plagued with an immense multiplication,
of lice. The same chapter states that the land was cor-
rupted by reason of a swarm of flies. In the Book of
Joel an account is given of the effect of this excessive
increase of insects—" For a nation has come up upon my
land, strong and without number" ; and " the field is
wasted, the land mourneth ; for the corn is wasted, the
new wine is dried up, arid the oil languisheth." In the
2nd chapter of the same book, a fearful description is
given of another insect plague, where they are spoken of
as the army of the Lord, strong to execute his word.
Similar' visitations are recorded in modern history. In
1785 France was ravaged by the grub of the cockchafer.
In 1688 the hedges and trees in the county of Galway,
Ireland, were denuded of their leaves by cockchafers, and
at midsummer the country wore the appearance of the
depth of winter. The visitations of locusts have been
often recorded, both in Holy Writ and in history, ancient
and modern ; and 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 viscous 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 gauzewing hymenop-
teri, earwigs, some species of a,caii, spiders, 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 England is coming up
everywhere most vigorously. The frost does not seem to
have done it any injury. Its powers of resisting cold are
almost equal to its powers of resisting heat, and the plant
has grown and improved in colour under the snow.
CONSUMPTION OF SMOKE.—A patent has been obtained
by Messrs. W. G. and W. Taylor, for an invention to be
applied to all furnaces constructed in the ordinary manner
with open ash-pits, for effecting a more perfect coinbustion
of the inflammable gases and unconsumed carbon. It con-
sists, first, in the application of an exhausting
and blowing
apparatus ; and, secondly, in a peculiar distribution or ar-
rangement of the smoke flues, so as to be adapted to the
operation of such apparatus. A fan, or blower, is applied .
to the flue just before the entrance to the chimney, to,
arrest the smoke and unconsumed gases, and force them.
hrough a flue, leading therefrom, and opening on, to the
dead plate at or near the front of the fire bars. By this
means the whole is passed over the incandescent fuel
where it is consumed, instead of passing up the chimney,
unconsumed.