32 MEMOIK OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. IV. 



In one of the newspapers appeared the following humorous 

 lines : 



Lines on reading Mr. Smee's Account of the Aphis vastator, supposed by 

 him to cause the Potato Slight. 



Well ! this confounded tater blight 



Is now clear'd up by Smee ; 

 And for a cure all people must 



To fumigation flee. 



Let all peruse his handsome book 



About the wondrous fly, 

 Which is the cause of all the ill 



So says his theory. 



On reading first the title-page 



(I say it in no joke), 

 From seeing F.R.S., I thought 



The thing must end in smoke. 



That some large bugs have been the cause 



We've had some keen debaters ; 

 But none till now thought little flies 



Could turn out such vast (e)aters. 



That this vast-eating insect thrives 



On its new kind of food, 

 There is no doubt, for milliards are 



Born daily to the brood : 



Which shows potatoes 'mongst all plants 



Still hold the foremost place, 

 In making insects breed in swarms, 



As well's the human race. 



Alas ! how many other crops 



This aphis now will finish ! 

 And though we may have gammon left, 



We'll have no more of spinach. 



On turnips, carrots, and on beets, 



They jump about in flocks ; 

 Even dandelions are not free, 



Nor nettles, grass, nor docks. 



Let some strong dose be now devised 



By chemic speculators, 

 To massacre, this very year, 



These terrible vastators. 



Other lines appeared elsewhere, such as 



" The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-mal 

 All jump'd out of Alfred Smee's rotten pot; 



and others I might enumerate had I space so to do. 



