166 



ON THE RUST OR BLACK BLIGHT IN WHEAT. 



ACCORDING to our understanding of the prin- 

 ciples, which regulate and determine the prepara- 

 tion and application of the food of plants ; must 

 be our notions of the diseases of plants, and our 

 ideas of the best mode or course of cultivating 

 them. 



A wide difference undoubtedly exists in the for- 

 mation, functions, and peculiar nature of animals 

 and vegetables; but yet they may, in many res- 

 pects, be assimilated ; and thus, by comparison, 

 the proper treatment of plants be simplified, and 

 rendered more easy of explanation and comprehen- 

 sion. I shall take leave to state, that the observa- 

 tion and experience of many years have convinced 

 me, that the opinions of the great reformer of the 

 medical profession, Mr. Abernethy that the most 

 afflicting diseases to which the human species 

 are subjected, are generated in the stomach, and 

 consequently are to be remedied by the stomach 

 are perfectly just and well founded : and I am 

 also convinced, that most of the diseases of ani- 

 mals and of plants, may be accounted for and 

 remedied, on the same principles. From what 

 has been said, it is clear, that vegetables cannot 



