May 1, 1S67/J 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



107 



of gregarinse are light, increased temperature, 

 and a moist atmosphere ; and lie declares that in the 

 ballroom these are not without their influence on 

 the parasites when they exist on false hair, for they 

 at once revive, grow, and multiply, get disseminated 

 in millions, and in consequence of the increased 

 respiration produced by the exertion of dancing, are 

 inhaled freely into the lungs, reach their specific 

 gregarine nature, and after a while induce disease in 

 the body. 



In these quotations prevalent fashions were de- 

 picted as sources of danger, inducing discomfort and 

 disease. A writer in one of the daily papers (" In- 

 vestigator") asserted that he had witnessed from 

 direct observation the development of gregarinse 

 into lice, an assumption that implies a liberty with 

 Darwinism that its most zealous and radical devo- 

 tees would at the present time hesitate to suggest. 

 It is only just to say that the Lancet, which first 

 noticed the matter, and confined itself to a mere 

 mention of the facts, urged its readers to accept 

 the statements put forth, with the gravest 

 caution. Lindemann's assertions are very startling 

 to scientific men, because they are wholly in 

 antagonism with observed facts. Whilst scientific 

 research has as yet afforded little insight of the 

 habits of the lower forms of animal and vegetable 

 life, the revelations of the microscope within the 

 last few years are pregnant with significance as 

 regards their ubiquity, and teach us that we are 

 not to be astonished if we find living forms in 

 unexpected sites, undergoing themost manifold varia- 

 tions in aspect when brought under the play of 

 different influences. At the same time we have 

 the amplest experience to caution us against the 

 acceptance of new species without the keenest 

 criticism. What, then, is the truth in this matter ? 

 In my devotion to the subject of diseases of the skin, 

 it has laiu in my way during the last ten years to 

 investigate the whole subject of diseases of the hair 

 connected with the development of vegetable para- 

 sites, and I think no one has made a larger number 

 of microscopic observations. I have never seen a true 

 gregarina in connection with the hair ; but I have 

 recently found a vegetable growth on false German 

 hair answering in naked eye appearances to that 

 described by Lindemann as little dark specks 

 surrounding the hair towards its end. Gregarinse, 

 according to Lindemann, are made up of cells, 

 which he states to be vegetable, and it is possible 

 that that which I have found may be identical with 

 his gregarina?. I cannot help thinking that many 

 bodies totally dissimilar in nature have been classed 

 with gregarinse, which my friend Ray Lankester, 

 than whom no higher authority on the point exists, 

 declares to be truly animal. The growth I have 

 found I now proceed to describe. 



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, surrounding the shaft of the hair ; they are 

 readily felt on drawing the hair through the fingers ; 

 they are somewhat difficult to detach. If a hair be 

 placed under the microscope with a quarter-inch 

 objective, the mass will be seen to be made up of 

 cellular bodies surrounding the hair, such as are 

 seen in figs. 75 and 76, kindly drawn for me by Dr. 

 Braxton Hicks, F.R.S. 



Fig. "5. 



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 filamentous, seen 

 in the central part of fig. 75 ; and sporular or cellular, 

 seen in fig. 76, which is the outer part of fig. 75 con- 

 siderably enlarged. 



Fig. 76. 



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. 



Fig. 77- 



Pig. 77 gives a good representation of them ; they 

 are from ^Vs to 5^00 inch; many are like the 



