CHAP. IV.] FAMINE FOOD SOIRE& 33 



But in the midst of the investigations, in the midst of the 

 bitter controversies and the humorous skits on the subject, the 

 disease still went rapidly on, till the scourge became so great 

 that a famine ensued in the land, and in Ireland the people were 

 dying of starvation. Then, in the midst of their distress, the 

 people bethought them of turning to Heaven for assistance ; 

 and accordingly we find that, on the llth of October, 1846, 

 prayers to the Almighty were offered up in all the churches 

 and chapels in England and Wales, for relief from the dearth and 

 scarcity then existing in parts of the United Kingdom. A few 

 months later, on Wednesday, the 24th of March, 1847, a form of 

 prayer was used in all churches and chapels throughout England 

 and Ireland, that being the day appointed by proclamation for a 

 general fast and humiliation. 



Meanwhile, my father was trying various experiments to 

 ascertain how far other kinds of food might be employed for 

 the relief of the poor starved population of these realms. On 

 Saturday, the 6th of February, 1847, he held a large soiree at 

 his residence in Finsbury Circus, expressly to exhibit his famine 

 food, at which between 200 and 300 of the most distinguished 

 professional and literary men of the metropolis were present. 

 The account of the various kinds of bread constituting the 

 famine food is given in the Appendix, No. XY.A. 



The company tasted all the samples prepared, and pronounced 

 Mr. Smee to have succeeded beyond expectation in his attempt. 

 Though a mere child at the time, I have a distinct recollection of 

 the nauseous taste of the Iceland moss bread ; but the hay bread 

 and the hay biscuit I remember having found very sweet and 

 palatable. It should here be added that my father did not himself 

 believe that any of these breads, excepting the cereal breads, could 

 compete with wheat in nutritive power or price, so that, besides 

 being inferior in quality, they could never be brought into use 

 from their additional cost.* 



On the 10th of March of the same year Mr. Smee delivered a 

 lecture at the London Institution on aphides being the cause of 

 the potato disease. Whenever he delivered a lecture or wrote a 

 book, he always drew up on a card, or on one sheet of paper, 

 the plan of the lecture or of the book. This he called the 

 " skeleton." And in lecturing he only employed such brief notes 

 as were contained in his "skeleton." I will here subjoin the 

 skeleton of the lecture he delivered on the cause of the potato 



* See ' Instinct and Reason,' p. 106. 



