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potatoe in the field ; select and take some specimens ; these were exam- 

 ined with the microscope ; probed with the dissecting knife ; dried in wa- 

 ter baths ; treated with reagents ; burned in crucibles ; their very dust 

 was analysed ; finally the Doctors compared notes ; the mountain brought 

 forth its mouse ; they pronounced the disease to be temporary, arising 

 chiefly from cold, cloudy, wet weather. The sagacious Sir Robert Peel, 

 however, who was then at the helm of affairs, had obviously little faith 

 in their conclusions ; he manfully avowed in his place in parliament his 

 conviction that the disease was not likely to be transitory in its duration 

 — that the people must have bread — the corn laws must be abolished. 



The Royal Agricultural Society of England offered premiums for the 

 discovery of the cause of the disease and its remedy, and knoAving how 

 much misery had then been produced, and believing as I did most firmly 

 that the disease was not of a temporary character, nor yet owing solely 

 or even chiefly to anything peculiar in the weather, and fearing that the 

 Agricultural Society should coincide with the views of the Royal Com- 

 mission, I had the temerity to write to the Council of the Society on the 

 subject, not with a view to compete for their premiums, as I told them 

 knowing that I was precluded by one condition, but trusting the facts I 

 had to communicate might prove useful to them in forming their decision. 

 I quoted authorities, proving : 



1st. That the potatoe was formerly considered the palladium against 

 famine, producing with certainty tolerable crops in adverse seasons when 

 most other crops were deficient, and that the failure had occurred in a 

 year when all other crops, wheat perhaps excepted, were abundant. 



2d. That a moist season, such a one as suited the oat crop, had 

 hitherto been found most favorable to the growth of the potatoe, and 

 the oat crop of 1845 was one of the most abundant ever reaped in the 

 country. 



3d. That a reference to meteororological tables and to agricultural re- 

 ports, proved that the summer of 1829 in England was so cold, nearly 

 twice as wet, more cloudy, and much more unfavorable to vegetation gen- 

 erally, than the summer of 1845, yet no such disease of the potatoe was 

 then developed. 



4th. That the disease did not appear simultaneously throughout the 

 country, like the diseases of animals, arising from a peculiar state of the 

 weather, but like the epidemic diseases of animals, it commenced on its. 

 first appearance, at a certain point and travelled,. 



