318 On the Chemical Nature of Blighted Corn. 



the blight, but sufficing to give it the power of reddonlug 

 vegetable biues. 



5, Lastly, The phos]>bates of aminonia, of magnesia, 

 and lime, in the small proportion of some thousand parts. 



Thus the blight of wheat is only a residuum of putrefied 

 farina, which, instead of the constituent elements ^( this 

 last, viz. starch, gluten, saccharine matter, contains only 

 a .kind of charred oily substance very similar to that species 

 cf bitumen wiiich derives its origin from animal or vegeto- 

 animal bodies. 



We would here call to mind, that properties very similar 

 to those of the blight of wheat were presented to us during 

 our examination of oluten decomposed by putrefaction, and 

 that the products of the one approach so near lo those of 

 the other, as to render it difficult, in some cases, to avoid 

 confounding them. Indeed, it requires considerable expe- 

 rience in chemical operations to discover the slight differ- 

 ences existing between these two putrefied matters ; for they 

 consist only in those slight shades which are caught with 

 dii^cultv. 



However interesting the results of this analysis may ap- 

 pear, we must admit that the knowledge which they afford 

 regarding the nature of blight serves to throw but little light 

 on its cause, or its contagious quality ; v.hich is now proved 

 by so many experiments, that there can no longer remain 

 the slightest doubt : we must also confess that these results, 

 ■while they show blight to consist of the residuum of putre- 

 fied farina, do not completely accord with the ideas of those 

 philosophical agriculturists wlio regard this disease as the 

 necessary effect of contagion ; for, agreeably to our analysis, 

 it would seem equally reasonable to consider it as the effect 

 of putrefaciive decomposition, which niay arise from many 

 other circimistances besides the influence of infection*. 



These results induce us also to think that the septic pro- 

 cess, which necessarily precedes the formation of blight in 

 every case, whether arising from contagions or occurring 

 spontaneously, attacks in particular the gluten, and antici- 

 pates, nay, prevents the lorjnation of starch; for we well 

 know that this matter, of which no traces are discoverable 

 in blight, suffers no alteration from the putrefaction which 

 attacks so violently the substance of gluten. 



* From sir Joseph BiTiks's paper which we have laid before our readers, 

 we have arig-ht to consider blig;ht as a vegetable fungus. If this be admitted, 

 it is easy to coucelvc that, the organization of tiie grain being destroyed by 

 the shooting of the roots of the fungi, u slow decomposition of the seed must 

 folWi-w. — Edit. 



LXVI. Ex' 



