FUNGOUS AND BACTERIAL DISEASES 209 



of the crop escaped. A cry of agony and despair went up all over 

 the land. The last desperate stake for life had been played and all 

 was lost. The doomed people realized but too well what was before 

 them. Last year's premonitory sufferings had exhausted them and 

 now? they must die. 



We raised a public subscription, and employed two men with horse 

 and cart to go around each day and gather up the dead. One by one 

 they were taken to a great pit at Ardnabrahair Abbey and dropped 

 through the hinged bottom of a trap-coffin into a common grave 

 below. In the remoter rural districts even this rude sepulcher was 

 impossible. In the field and by the ditchside the victims lay as they 

 fell, till some charitable hand was found to cover them with the 

 adjacent soil. LORD E. FITZMAURICE and J. R. THURSFIELD, in 

 Larned's "History for Ready Reference," Ireland, 1845-1847 



Here we have our problem in the large and in concrete 

 form. An enemy has killed by starvation nearly a million 

 people. 1 What is this enemy ? Who saw it come or go ? 

 How does it operate ? Why did it do this ? How can we 

 prevent future calamities of this kind ? The world had to 

 await alleviation of fears and superstitions, discoveries in 

 many fields, and growth of the science of botany before 

 many of these questions could be answered. Nothing can 

 surpass in human value and interest, however, the quality 

 of mind that works out solutions for such problems. In the 

 light of the Irish famine, what may be the human value of 

 such discoveries ? 



To get an insight into growth of knowledge in this field, call for at 

 least three volunteers. Let number one read up the story of this 

 famine further and report to the class. This is to develop a feeling 

 for the need and motive for such study. Let number two look up and 

 report on the story of discoveries leading up to determining" and 

 naming the fungus and devising methods for its control. 2 Number 



1 Returns to date (September 15, 1915) give total losses, killed, wounded, 

 and missing in the British army, after more than a year of the great war, 

 at less than 400,000. 



2 See work of Dr. Berkeley (1846), Louis Pasteur (1856), especially De 

 Bary (1861 and later), and Millardet, discoverer of Bordeaux mixture (1883). 



