12 ME. BEBKELEY ON THE POTATO MtnaKAlN. 



were soft to the touch, and upon the decayed potatoes I observed 

 a whitish substance like mould." This was clearly an aggra- 

 vated form of the disease of 1845. 



It is stated by Mr. Elliott,* of Florence Court, that the disease 

 has been for the last three or four years prevalent in that part of 

 Ireland ; and Mr. Smeed, an eminent agriculturist of Bromston, 

 near St. Peter's, in the Isle of Thanet, observed it in 1844.t It 

 is not improbable that the disease which made its appearance in 

 St. Helena, in 1844,$ was really identical, and it is possible that 

 the rust observed by Staudinger§ at Hamburgh some years 

 since, was the same, if it be not rather referable to the disease 

 mentioned by Martins under the name of Rust, which, though 

 in some respects resembling that before us, differs too widely to 

 allow of their being considered the same. It is impossible, in- 

 deed, to form any accurate judgment where the details are so 

 imperfect and insufficient. 



In a recent communication to the French Academy, Nov. 17, 

 1845, M. Boussingault states, on the information of M. Joachim 

 Acosta, that the malady is well known in rainy years at Bogota, 

 where the Indians live almost entirely on potatoes. They do 

 not hesitate to use them, merely cutting off the affected part. 

 M. Acosta believes that the disease has been always familiar to 

 the Indians. II 



It seems then clear, from the instances adduced, and others 

 possibly may be found which have escaped my observation, tliat 

 the disease cannot be considered as confined to the year 1 845 ; 

 and' therefore, in endeavouring to ascertain its causes, it is ab- 

 solutely imperative to keep this fact in view. The details are 

 not indeed always sufficient, from the very nature of the case, 

 for us to form a judgment from them ourselves ; but putting all 

 the information together, and properly estimating the parties 

 from whom the evidence springs, we cannot fail to assent to 

 their combined testimony.^ 



The first notice of the disease in any of our own journals was 

 by Dr. Bell Salter in the ' Gardener's Chronicle' for August 16, 



* Gard. Chr. 1845, p. 674. t lb. 



I Gard. Chr. 1844, p. 359. § Isis, 1832. 



II L'Institut, Nov. 19, 1845. This singularly confirms Dr. Morren's notion 

 that the disease, like some other afflictions of the vegetable kingdom, is of 

 American origin. 



^ The Brussels Commission, however, came to a different conclusion. 

 See ' Rapport fait au Conseil Central de Salubrite Publique de Bruxelles sur 

 la Maladie des Pommes de Terre, par M. Dieudonue, rapporteur.' They 

 were, evidently, not in possession of all the evidence which has just been ad- 

 duced. M. Durand, of Caen, does not consider the disease a new one. 



