32 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [Chap. IV, 



In one of the newspapers appeared the following humorous 

 lines : — 



Lines on reading Mr. Smee's Acccmmi of the Aphis vastator, swpposed by 

 him to cause the Potato Blight. 



"Well ! this confounded tater blight 



Is now clear'd up by Smee ; 

 And for a ciu'e all people must 



To fumigation flee. 



Let all peruse his handsome book 



About the -wondrous fly, 

 Which is the cause of all the iU — 



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 debatei-s ; 

 But none tUl 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 



Bom daily to the brood : 



Which shows potatoes 'mongst all plants 



StiU. 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 ganvmon 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-ma 

 Ail jump'd out of Alfred Smee's rotten pot 



and others I might enumerate had I space so to do 



