On a Disease in Elm Trees. 379 



brated Dr. Lettsom. To those who do not know the place of 

 which I am speaking, it is necessary to say that Camberwell 

 Grove is a road not quite two-thirds of a mile in length, 

 forming a gentle ascent to its summit, about 30 feet wide, and 

 having a row of trees on each side, consisting of elms, limes, 

 poplars, and chesnuts of considerable age and size, closely 

 planted, especially towards the upper part of the road. In the 

 month of October following, a period of about six weeks from 

 the introduction of the gas, several of the elm trees were 

 noticed to have lost or been stripped of their bark, for about 

 three, four, and five feet from the base of the trunk ; and the 

 evil appearing to increase, a gentleman residing on the spot, 

 interested in the preservation of the trees, offered a reward of 

 two guineas for the apprehension of the persons supposed to 

 have thus mischievously barked them. Several months, how- 

 ever, passed by, and though watchmen were employed to sit up 

 during the night, no persons were discovered. Still the evil 

 was not diminished; the bark fell, or was stripped off, in 

 greater quantities than before, and almost every person who 

 walked up the Grove, or was attracted by the novelty of the 

 circumstance, undesignedly added somewhat to the mischief, 

 by ripping off a little bit in wantonness, or a curious desire 

 to discover the cause. The trees presented a lamentable ap- 

 pearance, and were the subject of general conversation in the 

 neighbourhood. Some time in January, in the present year, 

 a bill was filed in Chancery against the Gas Company by the 

 gentleman before alluded to, a solicitor in large practice, and 

 an application made to the Court for an injunction to restrain 

 the Company from laying on or conducting any gas through 

 the mains laid down by them in Camberwell Grove. The ap- 

 plication was founded upon affidavits of gardeners and others, 

 who deposed that, in their opinion, the disease in the trees 

 was occasioned by the escape of the gas from the mains, which 

 impregnated the earth and poisoned the roots. The applica- 

 tion, when made, was postponed, upon the ground of some 

 defect in the plaintiff's proceedings, for a few days, and ulti- 

 mately renewed during several periods, in which a great num- 

 ber of scientific men were consulted, who made affidavits as 

 to their belief in the cause of the disease ; and the matter was 

 finally brought before the Vice- Chancellor on the 8th of April 

 last, and the injunction refused ; but leave was given to the 

 plaintiff to bring an action, by which he might establish, 

 before a jury, the alleged connection between the introduc- 

 tion of the gas and the disease in question, if any such really 

 existed ; and also to decide another question as to the right 

 Vol. I. No. 4. d d 



