298 



On Blight. 



Vol. IV. 



case is precisely the same witli the honey- 

 dews, which ever precedes the insects, and 

 frequently comes, continues, and passes away 

 without their company. Darwin was not 

 aware of the ludicrous dilemma which his 

 hypothesis involved, when he determined 

 the honey-dews to be the excrement of the 

 aphides ! This dew oftentimes supervenes, 

 and lines the leaves universally, in the course 

 of a few, or even of one hour, and long before 

 the aphides are visible: the excrement, how- 

 ever, of the aphides, as well as other insects, 

 is doubtless, often blended with the honey- 

 dew. To the best of my recollection, I had 

 previously learned from Sherrock, Nales and 

 Miller, " that insects are not the first cause 

 of fclights, as imagined by some," but I have 

 since discovered, to my entire conviction, 

 that itistead of the insects being the cause of 

 blights, blights are the real cause of insects. 



Similar arguments, deduced from facts of 

 invariable observation through a long course 

 of years, by many competent, and some 

 learned individuals, are fatal also to the an- 

 alogous hypothesis of Fontena, that " blight 

 in grain is occasioned by the growth of a 

 minute parasitic fungus or mushroom, on the 

 leaves, stems and glumes of the living plant." 

 Now, nothing can be more clear to the atten- 

 tive observer in the field — his only proper 

 theatre — than that the Italian philosopher's 

 proposition must be converted, in order to 

 render it consonant to truth : for the parasitic 

 fungus (to adopt an idea perfectly harmless 

 in any point of view) is assuredly, the effect, 

 and not the cause of blight; and had not the 

 parasite clung to, and seduced the brains of 

 Fontena, inspiring them with the rage of sys- 

 tem and speculative science ; and had he 

 substituted a patient and general attention to 

 the meteorological and morbid phenomena 

 of his subject, instead of an elaborate account 

 of pure curiosity and untenable hypothesis, 

 he might have furnished one of pointed, sub- 

 stantial, and practical use. 



I know of no particular objection to styl- 

 ing the morbid eruptions on either plants or 

 animals, fungus or mushroom growths ; the 

 creeping tetter, scabies or parasite upon the 



Slant may, without any breach of propriety, 

 e so denominated ; even the seminal part of 

 the hypothesis — that the fungus propagates 

 its like by seminal generation — may be very 

 easily admitted, and when admitted, will be 

 proved a fact of minor and trifling <;onse- 

 quence. Without denying the simple pos- 

 sibility, that the seed of the fungus or scab 

 upon the stalks of grain might infect and pro- 

 duce the disease in other stalks adjoining, 

 common observation teaches us, that such is 

 not in the ordinary course ; for we often see 

 fields of grain affected partially, or in stripes, 

 which chanced to stand in the line of the at- 



mospheric stroke ; whilst the grain immedi- I 

 ately adjoining shall remain to the end totally -^ 

 unaffected ; and even one side of an acre shall 

 remain sound, and the other blighted ; or the 

 stalk shall be affected, and the ear untouched. 

 The disease — originally caused by atmos- 

 pheric affection — depends entirely on the 

 subsequent state of the weather for its increase, ' 

 decrease or annihilation ; nor are the seeds 

 of the supposed parasite, of the smallest fu- 

 ture consequence, since we invariably find 

 that, whether the vegetation of the succeed- 

 ing year shall be blighted or not, depends 

 simply on the course of the winds and the 

 condition of the atmosphere ; and that what- 

 ever store of the seeds of the parasite may 

 be supposed to remain after the most blight- 

 ing season, they are still found perfectly 

 harmless in warm and genial seasons ; and 

 after the interval of a number of years of ex- 

 emption from the malady, one shall suddenly 

 occur, in which the disease shall be epidem- 

 ic, and its cause, an atmosphere unfavourably 

 changeable, so obvious, that if a blind man 

 cannot see, he shall be sure to feel it. In the 

 interim, what betides the seed of Fontena's 

 favorite parasite plant ] Does it remain float- 

 ing in the air, buried in the earth beneath, or 

 in the waters under the earth 1 partially hold- 

 ing itself in readiness to obey the summons 

 of that boisterous jEoIus, East-narth-east, and 

 to nestle in the body, now prepared for its 

 reception, in order to suck up its life-blood ! 

 Surely, this is no unapt example of the ab- 

 surdities into which men voluntarily plunge, 

 when they become determined upon the for- 

 mation of a system at any rate, and whether 

 or not they may have been able to provide 

 the necessary materials for its support. 



The dry rot in timber also affords a fine 

 ground for systematic and scientific display; 

 here again, we are all seed and fungus, and 

 those effects, scientifically thrust into our view 

 as causes, so totally absorb our mental vision, 

 that we have not a ray left for the real cause 

 of the malady. Hence, the gainful trade of 

 publishing dry-rot cure by wood doctors, who 

 are furnished with infallible washes to kill 

 or resist the seeds of fungus. Now the 

 downrigiit common sense of the business 

 appears to me to be this — if you have, in- 

 ternally and from the foundation, a stagnant 

 vapour, or externally unventilated and onab- 

 sorbed damps, you will, most probably, grow 

 the vegetable fungi of both the dry and the 

 wet rot : replace your rotten timber with 

 sound, if you please; dress it with some of 

 the various washes recommended — little mat- 

 ter which — and the new wood will tempo- 

 rarily resist the rot, or the varnish will de- 

 stroy the fungus and its seeds, both which, 

 however, will be reproduced in due time by 

 their original cause, stagnant humidity i ven- 



