6o6 



NATURE 



[October 20, 1904 



cow which must be milked with all one's force when 

 one is at the helm. In addition to this there is the 

 want of scruple as regards public money, which, ac- 

 cording to a very general view, exists in order to be 

 appropriated to any plausible pretext or to be secured 

 for one's family or friends. ..." 



The author also condemns the wasteful system which 

 exists in municipal bodies of embarking on costly 

 enterprises, which are discontinued after the next 

 municipal election when another party comes into 

 power. In this way the money of the ratepayers is 

 squandered away with no return. In regard to the 

 confiscation of the monasteries, the following sentences 

 may be quoted : — 



" These regulations, however, have been applied in 

 the half and half manner characteristic of Italy." 

 ■" The vast ecclesiastical possessions seized by the State 

 were sold or squandered in the course of a few years." 

 ■" Thus the enormous source of income which might 

 have proved a blessing to thousands and created a 

 small class of landed proprietors has failed to bestow 

 the expected benefit on the country." 



On p. 279 we are told, " The Building Societies are 

 almost a public calamity." "The hideous new 

 quarter near the railway station at Naples, on the 

 Vomero at the same tovi^n, and in the Campus 

 Martius at Rome are the best proofs of the results 

 of carrying on business in this manner." 



Speaking of universities. Prof. Deecke makes the 

 following remarks, which are equally applicable to 

 our English system : — " There is another difference 

 as compared with Germany, namely, that the Professor 

 appointed to hold a course of lectures is not allowed 

 to take a general survey of his subject or to handle it 

 fully, but has to dispose of a prescribed section of 

 the subject in the three hours a week, so that at the 

 final examination questions can be set within this 

 narrow circle. The instruction given at the Uni- 

 versities naturally suffers, and still more the scientific 

 training of the students, which can only be described 

 as unsatisfactory." 



The chapter on art, language and science contains 

 a list of the principal learned academies of Italy. 



In connection with music, the author remarks : — 

 " The music of Wagner, poor in melody and difficult 

 to understand, has not become naturalised in Italy." 



As illustrating more fully the wide and varied range 

 of the subjects treated, we may instance the statement 

 that there are ten times as many murders in Italy as 

 in Germany, the regulations limiting the number of 

 barrel-organs in Naples, the number of pedlars, the 

 method of smelting sulphur, the statistics of Italians 

 abroad, observations of terrestrial magnetism, the 

 superstition according to which cats' tails are docked, 

 a portrait of Garibaldi and a plan of the harbour of 

 Genoa, photographs of Roman cattle, and descriptions 

 of Italian cheese. 



The section on topography might be very well 

 studied by anyone contemplating a tour in Italy. It 

 gives an excellent account of the features worth 

 noticing in different districts, and it includes the 

 Maltese group as well. It is well illustrated. But 

 for that matter the whole book would well repay 

 reading before or after visiting Itaiy. The average 

 tourist contents himself when visiting a new country 

 with seeing the principal churches and picture 

 galleries, usually conducted by a guide, but to visit 

 a country properly a wider sur\'ey should be taken, 

 and a book like the present consulted. To the writer 

 this book brings back the most pleasant reminiscences 

 of bygone travels in Italy ; to the reader who has stayed 

 at home it presents as graphic a picture as any book 

 can present of everything that is Italian. 



G. H. Bryan. 



NO. 1825, VOL. 70] 



DISEASE-PROOF POTATOES? 



'T'HE recently established National Potato Society 

 ■*■ has as one of its many objects the discovery of a 

 " disease-proof " potato. Even if it only succeeds in 

 throwing some light on the relative immunity of some 

 varieties, and on the causes of that comparative exemp- 

 tion, it will do some good. Next to wheat, there is no 

 crop more important in this country, and whilst wheat- 

 growing seems to be getting more and more unprofit- 

 able, the culture of potatoes is extending so much that 

 it is evident that the growers must find some good 

 reason for the increased production. The enormous 

 importations from Germany, Holland, and other 

 countries should serve as a stimulus to our farmers, 

 for it is obvious that, excepting in the comparative 

 cheapness of labour, those countries possess no special 

 advantages over our own in the matter of potato- 

 growing. 



In dealing with the question of the potato disease, 

 by which we mean the rotting caused by the fungus 

 PhytoptJiora infestans, there are two principal subjects 

 of inquiry : first, the life-history of the fungus ; 

 second, the " constitution," if we may use so vague 

 a term, of the potato plant. 



Neither of these subjects can be thoroughly investi- 

 gated by the average potato grower. All important as 

 they are, they lie outside the range of his capabilities. 

 It is to our research stations or to individual experi- 

 menters that we must look for guidance. Even now 

 the life-history of the fungus is imperfectly known. 

 We do not know for certain what becomes of it in the 

 winter, nor why it suddenly bursts into activity under 

 certain atmospheric conditions. We do not know for 

 certain whether it can pass any portion of its life on 

 some other plant under another guise. We do not 

 know for certain if a resting spore is formed, and our 

 knowledge of the mycelium during the winter is, for 

 the most part, conjectural rather than real. Here, then, 

 are subjects for inquiry at once of the deepest physio- 

 logical importance and of the greatest practical value. 



As to the so-called disease-resisting varieties, also, 

 further information is wanted, and this the practical 

 man might supply. A visitor to the recent display 

 of potatoes at the Crystal Palace, seeing the innumer- 

 able varieties there exhibited, might well wonder 

 whether thev all " supplied a want," and it was con- 

 solatory to the casual observer to hear even experts 

 acknowledge the impossibility in some cases of dis- 

 criminating one variety from another by the tubers 

 alone. Had it been possible to show the haulms, the 

 foliage, and the flowers and fruits with the tubers, 

 as was, in fact, done in one or two cases, some points 

 of distinction might have been forthcoming. 



But although there is often a close resemblance 

 between the tubers of one variety and those of another, 

 and although it frequently happens that tubers of quite 

 different shapes may occur on the same plant, yet it 

 does not appear, from our present knowledge, that 

 this similaritv on the one hand, or this diversity on 

 the other, is associated with any structural change 

 which shall indicate either immunity from disease or 

 increased susceptibility to its attacks. In the case of 

 potatoes, certain varieties, like Sutton's Discovery, are 

 unusually robust, producing haulms almost woody in 

 their character, and these are found to be less 

 susceptible to disease than are others of softer, more 

 juicy consistence, which are more easily penetrated by 

 the fungus hyphae. Differences of this character, de- 

 pendent on increased vigour of growth, are recognised 

 by the growers, but we are not aware that micro- 

 scopists have as yet made any researches into the 

 structure of the potato foliage with special reference 

 to its immunity from, or susceptibility to, disease. It 



