PALMELLACE.E. 



SIZE. Cells -006--0095 mm. (Rabh.). 

 Kab. Alg. iii. 27. 



" The chignon fungus.'" Dr. Tilbury Fox, in " Science 

 Gossip," May 1, 1867. 



On human hair used as " chignons." 



This organism, which is included by Rabenhorst amongst Algce under 

 the above name, is rather a doubtf ul production, at least it seems to be 

 a doubtful alga. The late Dr. Tilbury Fox examined it carefully in 

 1867 with the following results : 



" If you take a hair on which the parasite exists, and hold it between 

 yourself and the light, towards the outer half you will see one or more, 

 perhaps half-a-dozen, little dark knots, the size of pin points, surround- 

 ing the shaft of the hair ; they are readily felt on drawing the hair 

 through the fingers ; they are somewhat difficult to detach. Under the 

 microscope, with a quarter-inch objective, the mass will be seen to be 

 made up of cellular bodies surrounding the hair. It will be seen that 

 the mass has the appearance of a fungus growth, of which two distinct 

 forms are here present, viz., mycelial or filamentose, and sporular or 

 cellular. The hair is apparently healthy, and if the slide be pressed the 

 mass will break away from the hair on either side, bringing away with it 

 more or less of the cuticle, and leaving behind a healthy shaft. The 

 cells are seen to be of various shapes and sizes. They are from 1-4000 

 to 1-3000 of an inch, many are like the 'torula' cells developed from 

 Penicilium. Others are larger, undergoing division very actively. They 

 may be subdivided into two, three, or four parts, or much more freely. 

 This indicates the assumption by the parasite of an algal condition. (It 

 is this form to which the name Pleurococcus Beigelii manifestly applies.) 



" In watching the mass on the hair carefully, it is evident that a 

 number of small cells become detached from the outer or sporular form, 

 and at once move actively about. These small cells indicate an active 

 growth by subdivision, and a fruitful source of propagation. Certainly 

 this variety of fungus, so far described, is the most active growth I have 

 come across in my researches, and I have been enabled to germinate it 

 most successfully, so as to set all questions as to its nature completely 

 at rest. Placed under favourable circumstances in water, the spores 

 enlarge considerably, and the mycelial filaments increase also, but there 

 is at this time to be observed a very remarkable occurrence, though not 

 in all cases. Some of the large cells have become filled with smaller 

 cells, and in others, in addition to these, processes have been put forth 

 from the circumference of the walls in a radiating manner ; in other 

 cases the enlarged cells have two long cilia attached to them, by which 

 they move about rapidly, whilst a part of the hair previous to this free 

 from the fungus, has become dotted all over by minute cells similar to 

 those seen in the interior of the larger ones. 



" But more than this, I have observed most distinctly large cells filled 

 with smaller cells, furnished with exceedingly delicate radiating pro- 

 cesses, and putting forth pseudopodia. It will here be seen to have 

 assumed the features of an ameboid body. Nothing could have been 

 more distinct to myself, and those who were observing with me, than 

 this peculiar form ; and it seems to me that we have here a pretty com- 

 plete history of the life of the fungus namely, the sporular sub- 

 dividing and assuming an algal form, which in turn becomes ama3bi- 

 form, and furnishes ciliated cells that supply the earliest condition of 

 the fungus, scattered over the hair." Further details, with illustrations 

 are given in the memoir, of which the above is an abstract, to which the 

 student is referred. 



Plate II. f. 4. Cells magnified 400 diam. 



