126 MONTAGNE ON 



been happily abandoned, in consequence of the wise counsel 

 given above. 



Remedial Measiires. — We now come to the curative means 

 employed to check the progress of the disease and to save the 

 vintage, and shall state the measures which have proved most 

 efficacious, referring to the excellent treatise by M. Payen and 

 the works already quoted by Bouchardat. 



One of the first means used successfully against the Oidium 

 which had attacked the graperies at Margate in 1845 was a 

 mixture of sulphur and lime, with which the diseased grapes 

 were washed or sprinkled. 



Since that period sulphur or combinations of sulphur have 

 always held the first rank as capable of arresting the malady. 

 Lime has also produced equally good results, but has sometimes 

 failed. Other mineral and vegetable substances have also been 

 employed successfully. Sulphuret of calcium has been recom- 

 mended by M. Turrell ; the marc of crude soda by M. Payen ; 

 sulphuret of calcium,-''- with the addition of an acid, that is, the 

 magisterium of sulphur, by M. Becquerel ; wood-ashes by M. 

 Nadault de Buffa; hydrated sulphate of lime combined with 

 nitrate of potash by M. Blain ; protosulphate of iron by Messrs. 

 Heuze and Veza; and finally decoctions of Euphorbia, tobacco, 

 walnut leaves, &c. I cannot enter into a full detail of the mode 

 of applying these numerous agents, nor can I undertake to 

 estimate their relative value. T shall, however, beg to say a few 

 words on the most efficacious of them, viz., sulphur, whether in 

 powder or in the form of solutions of its combinations. The 

 following details are abridged from the works of Payen and 

 Bouchardat : — 



Floivers of Sulphur. — The leaves, branches, and shoots are 

 first moistened as equally as possible with a syringe. Then by 

 the aid of Gontier s fumigator the whole is dusted with sulphur, 

 which adheres to the moistened surface. When the operation is 

 carefully performed, says M. Payen, the success is certain, pro- 

 vided it be renewed if a too long interval before the approach of 

 maturity and the dryness of the branches allow the greater part 

 of the sulphur to be detached. 



de 1845 ci 18.53, avec l' indication des meilleicrs moyens a employer pour les 

 combattre. Paris, 1853. 



* Sulphuret of Potassium is mentioned afterwards as employed by M. 

 Becquerel, but tlie chemical principle is the same in either case, the object 

 being to produce a magisterium or fine impalpable pi-ecijiitate of sulphur, 

 ivhieh enters into every crevice or inequality. — Tb. 



