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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the potato which must be alluded to here ; namely, the chance 
of its being introduced into Europe. Considering the alarm 
that the gradual advance of the potato-beetle has produced in 
America, it is not surprising that some apprehension should be 
felt on the subject on this side of the Atlantic, or that the 
authorities of some Continental States, to which the importation 
of American potatoes is of far less consequence than it is to us, 
should be debating the propriety of prohibiting all such im- 
portations. But if we consider the natural history of the 
beetle, as already described, it will be seen that there is little 
cause for apprehension upon this score. At the time of 
digging the main crop of potatoes, the insects will certainly be 
in the ground, probably in the pupa state, and if so a little 
care in washing them clean from all adherent soil before ship- 
ment will suffice to remove any pupae which may by chance be 
entangled in the earth. The perfect beetles will be still less 
likely to be transported with the potatoes. 
The real danger for Europe, as Mr. Biley has pointed out, 
consists in the possibility of perfect beetles, especially fecun- 
dated females, finding their way on board ships or steamers 
bound across the Atlantic ; and the experience of the trans- 
portation of the beetles by means of trading-vessels across the 
lakes from Michigan into Canada and the eastern States, shows 
that there is at least a possibility of their being introduced 
into Europe by similar means. This is a possibility against 
which no custom-house regulations, and indeed no official vigi- 
lance of any kind, can guard, and the only precaution that we 
can take is that recommended by the excellent American ento- 
mologist just cited ; namely, the circulation among seafaring 
men and the inhabitants of our western shores, and the posting 
up in the cabins of sailing-vessels and steam-boats, of correct 
descriptions and coloured figures of the beetle, with the request 
that anyone seeing such a creature on board ship or elsewhere 
should immediately destroy it. Considering the magnitude of 
the interests involved in this matter, although perhaps there 
may be no great cause of alarm, it is not too much to expect 
that the Government should co-operate with the various agri- 
cultural societies in spreading trustworthy information about 
the western potato-beetle throughout the country, and also take 
steps to carry out the suggestion of furnishing ships trading to 
America with conspicuous notices of the kind alluded to above. 
