La maladie des pommes de terre en 1845 vue par la Société médico-chirurgicale de Bruges: météorologie vs mycologie
Demarée, G.R. (2019). La maladie des pommes de terre en 1845 vue par la Société médico-chirurgicale de Bruges: météorologie vs mycologie. Food and History 17(1): 65-78. https://dx.doi.org/10.1484/j.food.5.120193 In: Food and History. Brepols: Turnhout. ISSN 1780-3187; e-ISSN 2034-2101, more |
| Abstract | he catastrophic potato harvest during the years from 1845 to 1849 is at the root of the last subsistence crisis in peacetime Europe. Its cause, previously unknown, lies with the oomycete Phytophthora infestans. In 1845, no less than 90% of the potato yield was lost in Flanders and the toll of the resulting famine was estimated to be 50,000 supernumerary deaths. The identification of the potato fungus by several Belgian scientists is described here in detail. The course of events, the geographical diffusion of the epidemic, and the scientific-medical research on the potato disease at the time are analyzed through the activities of the Société médico-chirurgicale of Bruges. Two conflicting explanatory theories clashed with one another. The first theory was based upon the meteorological observations carried out in Bruges by Louis Matthys, pharmacist and resident member of the society. He attributed the origin of the potato disease to climatic factors such as abrupt changes in temperature and the excessive humidity of the soil and of the atmosphere due to persistent rainfall. René Vanoye, medical doctor in the town of Thourout and corresponding member of the same society proposed an opposing explanation, which may be described as the mycologists’ theory: according to Vanoye, the disease of the potato plant was due to a fungus of the Botrytis group. |
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