891 



of them, to all appearance, as sound as when first planted. A number 

 of the plants thus attacked were exhibited to the meeting. 



" This sudden drooping of so many of the plants, which up to that 

 time had appeared so healthy, led to the examination of some of those 

 which still remained erect, when it was found that even some of these 

 presented precisely the same appearance as those which had dropped, 

 and which would doubtless in a few days have shared the same fate 

 as the others. Nothing, therefore, can be more fallacious than to' 

 depend upon the present general healthy appearence of the crop 

 throughout the country or its freedom from Aphides. The theory of 

 Mr. Alfred Smee is, as that gentleman is well aware, rejected by every 

 zoologist and botanist of distinction in London, and its reiteration at 

 the present critical moment is a gross attempt to mislead the public, 

 and may be productive of the greatest evil by inducing security 

 (owing to the absence of Aphides), until too late in the season to 

 remedy the evil. — I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 



"John O. Westwood, 

 " Secretary of the Entomological Society. 



" St. Peter's, Hammersmith, June 16.'' 



[Although there is nothing new in this letter except the absurd 

 attempt to quash enquiry by comparing the disease to cholera, and 

 thereby leading readers to suppose that it is not to be arrested ; yet it 

 does contain the united verdict of all zoologists that the Aphis has 

 nothing whatever to do with the disease : it is quite certain that 

 a potato plant on which an Aphis or a lady-bird or any other insect 

 happen to be crawling may die of this disease, but no tittle of 

 evidence is adduced to show that the Aphis or lady-bird caused the 

 death : the house in which Mr. Smee is residing may fall, but he were 

 a bold man that should assert that Mr. Smee's presence caused that 

 fall : no one should write on this subject who has not the intellectual 

 power of correctly estimating facts : nor should any one publish 

 without a previous knowledge of the habit of potatoes generally, and 

 of the difference of varieties. Mr. Westwood's potatoes with drooping 

 and yellow leaves were individuals of an early variety accidentally 

 mixed with the rest in setting them, since the appearance he describes 

 indicates nothing more than an advance towards maturity. The 

 drying, shriveling, and turning brown of the stem below ground, 

 point plainly to such a conclusion : where are the blotched and 

 fungus-infested plague-spots of the leaf ^ where is the rot in the stem ? 

 where the rot and discoloration of the tuber .? We wish people would 

 learn before teaching. — Ed.]. 



