120 [Assembly 



As to the idea of the cause of this disease being telluric, when we 

 consider that soils consists of bases, oxides, salts, constant in their na- 

 ture and incapable of change in themseves, we must turn our attention 

 to those elements in nature which act upon these bases. If these 

 bases were kept in a dry stale, there would be no change in them, it 

 is only when acted upon by other elements that they unite in any ve- 

 getable or other product. It is then to the active elements we must 

 look for causes. These are in constant play in the ocean of air, light, 

 gases, electricity, &c. &c. operating upon the surface of the earth, 

 and their effects are found to be for all our purposes confined to about 

 one foot in depth on the earth, that being the average depth of soil. 



A singular occurrence has lately been noticed by chemists, that is 

 the presence of caseine in diseased potatoes. Caseine is very perish- 

 able, whereas starch which constitutes the valuable element of the 

 potato is not so, for it may be extracted pure from rotten potatoes. 



Solanin has lately been adverted to. It seems that this poison, of 

 which a trace is always to be found in the solarium tuberosum (potato,) 

 is found to be much more abundant in the stalk of potatoes grown in 

 cellars where there is but little light ! 



Question fourth. — Were any means of preventing the recurrence of 

 the potato disease in successive years found effectual ? 



I reply, that I have no confidence, for any useful purpose in any of 

 the theories yet published. We all know that there are epidemics 

 occasionally, bolh in the animal and vegetable kingdom, (if the word 

 may be applied except to people,) which baffle all our knowledge both 

 as to their beginning and end. One truth, however, remains for our 

 consolation, and that is that they are, if periodical, not very lasting. 

 The animals and plants still continue to grow although disastrous in- 

 terruptions occur in their progression. The original potato still keeps 

 its annual growth in wild places in S. America, sometimes among the 

 wild cacti in barren places, annually yielding its little tuber somewhat 

 of the form and size of a pea-nut, putting forth annually its little seed 

 ball, which again falling to the earth renews the seedling potato from 

 age to age. Perhaps it would be well for us, (as I have long ago sug- 

 gested,) to procure these wild originals, and by careful culture in our 

 gardens, obtain a new race, which may remain domesticated, and feed 

 U8 for another period of three centuries. I have sent to South Araeri- 



