122 
PART Hi -NATURAL HISTORY. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
Article I .—Popular Errors with regard to Blight. By 
James Rennie, A.M. Professor of Natural History, 
King’s College, London. 
Gentlemen, 
Trere are few words of more vague import, or less under¬ 
stood, than Blight, which is popularly referred to some mysterious 
state of the air or winds, which may not only produce inflammation of 
the face and eyes, but is confidently believed to have the power of 
generating millions of insects, or at the very least, carrying them about, 
no one knows whence or wherefore; though it would be equally cor¬ 
rect to suppose this same blighting wind or'air, capable of generating 
or carrying about, a flock of sparrows or a herd of black cattle. This 
blight has been described by some, to wear the appearance of a haze 
or blue mist, or a sultry, purplish, or orange tinge in the air; while 
others promulgate certain fancies, equally unfounded and absurd, about 
its containing and depositing honey-dew, or being caused by electricity. 
That these notions are not confined to the vulgar and uneducated, 
is proved, by their having found their way into works of respectability 
and talent. In a work for example, just published, and distinguished 
tor considerable ability, though full of fanciful theory, I find the follow¬ 
ing singular passage. In “ those singular collapsions and accumula¬ 
tions called a blight, which cause them to become opaque and visible 
to the eye, the air itself becomes for miles suddenly filled with myi'iads 
of animalculse, unseen before, and unproduced by parents of the same 
sort, which must, out of certain of these elements, first radiant and 
next gaseous, liquid and solid, collapsing and condensing, suddenly and 
spontaneously have been formed.'*'** 
Were this a mere theoretical fancy, unconnected with practice, we 
might leave it to be admired by the theorists without remark; but as 
it is not so, I shall briefly show the errors into which it leads. As far 
as insects are concerned, I am quite certain that all accounts of Blight, 
similar to the preceding, are sheer nonsense; though there can be no 
doubt that cold winds, easterly or northerly, will produce inflammation 
* Hope’s Origin and Prospects of Man, Vol. 1, page 189. 
