KU^GOUb AM) I'.ArTEKiAL DISEASES lK)".! 



uf the crop escaped. A (M-v ut' agony and desjiair went up all uNcr 

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

 was lost, riic doomed people realized l>ut too well wiiat was hcfori' 

 thcin. Last year's pii'iiionitorv siilTfriniis li;id <'\haust<-d tlirm and 

 now? — they must die. 



^^'e rai.sed a ])u1)lic .sult.serijitioii, and employed two men with ii(ii>e 

 and cart to go around ea<di day an<l gather up (he dead. ()ne l)y oiu- 

 they were taken to a great ]>ir at Ardnahraiiair Al>l»ey and dro]»}ied 

 through tilt' hinged l)ottoni of a trai»-<*otlin into a common grave 

 below. Tn the remoter rural districts even this rude sepiUcher was 

 impossible. In the field ami by the (lit<diside the victims lay an they 

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

 adjacent soil, — L()i;i> 1^. Frrz.MAii;i( i: and d. II. 'I'm i:si ii;i.i». in 

 Larned's "History for IJeady Keferenee," Iifland, Is l.'t-ls I7 



Here we have our prol)h^in in the laro-c and in concrete 

 form. An enemv lias kilUnl l)v starvation nearly a million 

 people.^ What is this enemy? A\'^ho sa^y it come or c^o ? 

 How does it o})erate ? ^^hy did it do this? How can we 

 prevent fntui'e calamities of this kind? 'rbc world had to 

 await alleviation of fears and sni)erstitions, (Hscovei'ies in 

 many fields, and <'"rowth of the science of hotanv before 

 many of these questions coubl l)e answered. Nothing can 

 surpass in human \alue and interest, liowever, the (piality 

 of mind that works out solutions for such [)rohlems. In tbe 

 lio'lit of the Irish famine, what ma\' he the bnnian vahn^ of 

 such <liscoveries ? 



'i'o get an insight into growth of kno\vledg<' in this ti(dd, call for at 

 least three volunteers. Let numb(»r one read uji the story of tliis 

 famine further and report to tlie class. This is to develoj^ -a feeling 

 for tlie need and nu)tive for such study. Let nnmlM'r two look up and 

 n^port on the story of discoveries leading up to determining and 

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



1 Returns to date (September lo, lt)b')) ^dvc total losses, killed, woimiled. 

 and mi.ssing in tlie British army, after more than a year of the great war, 

 at less than 400.000. 



2 See work of Dr. Berkeley (1840), Louis Pasteur (IBoO), especially De 

 Bary (1801 and later), and Millardet, discoverer of Bordeaux mixture (1888). 



