CHAP. IV.] PERIOD OF POTATO DISEASE. 31 



the subject (his life was even threatened). Notwithstanding all this, it was 

 very curious to notice how kindly the public used to supply ine with facts 

 for my guidance ; and I received valuable communications, some of them 

 of great length, though, when the controversy was at its height, they 

 were sent anonymously. By the middle of summer nearly every agricul- 

 turist was made acquainted with my investigations despite this rancorous 

 animosity. 



I can just remember the time of the potato disease. Our 

 drawing-rooms were ornamented with innumerable specimens of 

 diseased potatoes. Potatoes were on the mantelpieces ; potatoes 

 were on the tables ; potatoes innumerable were on the floor. I am 

 by no means sure that the chairs were not occupied by potatoes ! 

 Wherever the eye glanced, diseased potatoes met the view. 



In the Appendix, No. XV.B., will be found a selection from the 

 voluminous correspondence which Alfred Smee carried on in 

 various newspapers on the potato disease during the years 1845, 

 1846, and 1847. 



In the ' Annual Register ' for 1805 it is stated in an article upon the 

 aphis, " In some years the aphides are so numerous as to cause almost a 

 total failure of the hop and potato plantations ; in other years the peas are 

 equally injured, while exotics, raised in stoves and greenhouses, are fre- 

 quently destroyed by their depredations." In the Linnsean Transactions 

 Mr. W. Curtis states, " To potatoes, and even to corn, we have known the 

 aphides to prove highly detrimental, and no less so to melons." Mr. Curtis 

 further states that " the aphis is the grand cause of blights in plants, and 

 that erroneous notions are entertained, not only by the vulgar and 

 illiterate, but even by persons of education, that aphides attack none but 

 sickly plants, with other notions as altogether false in fact as unphilo- 

 sophical in principle."* 



Besides the rancorous animosity of the ignorant and of the 

 bigoted, Mr. Smee was subjected to be taken off in humorous 

 skits. Mr. Punch, of course, was not behindhand. 



In the pantomime at Drury Lane appeared : 



Scene, a Village Fair with Shows, &c. &c. 

 Little Boy looking at a peep-show. 



Showman. This is the Aphis vastator, as you may see, 



Yery much magnified by Mr. Smee. 



Boy. Please, sir, which is the aphis and which is the tater ? 



Showman. Whichever you like, my young investigator. 



The Knight and the Wood Demon ; 

 or, One o'clock. 



' Instinct and Reason,' p. 263. 



