430 Excerpta Zoologica : — Vegetation upon Living Animals. 



both in new-born children and in adults. It has also been 

 once detected in the flocculent sediments of diabetic urine. 



This filamentoid fungus is frequently accompanied by the 

 fermentative fungus of the yeast {Coniomyces cerevisice), and 

 also by the peculiar fermentative fungus of diabetic urine. 

 Both have also been observed in dead and living persons. 



In diabetic urine which was undergoing fermentation, a 

 fermentative fungus was also developed, which however was 

 found to be specifically distinct from that of the yeast, the 

 individual cells being more elongate, and containing generally 

 from two to three nuclei. When yeast is added to fresh dia- 

 betic urine it likewise undergoes fermentation, but only the 

 fermentative fungus of the yeast is then evolved, not that of 

 the diabetes. 



The great resemblance between the fermentative and some 

 forms of the filamentoi-d fungi, their contemporaneous appear- 

 ance, and especially their occurrence in the living body, point 

 to a remarkable analogy between the process of fermentation 

 and several forms of disease, especially those produced by 

 contagion, — an analogy which has already been established by 

 Liebig in a chemical point of view *. 



Dr. Hanover has endeavoured to collect together the scat- 

 tered literature on the occurrence of parasitic plants upon 

 living animals tj whence it results that this phaenomenon may 

 occur in all classes of animals. They have been observed, — 



1 . In Man. — The vegetable nature of the Porrigo lupinosa was first 

 shown by Schoenlein and was then confirmed by various persons ; thus 

 recently in Tinea favosa by Dr. Gruby, Miill. Arch. 1842. Hanover 

 observed the filamentoid fungus of the mucous membrane, and at the 

 same time Bennet (Trans, of the Roy. Soc. Edinb.) has detected a 

 filamentoid fungus in the sputa and lungs of a man. J. Goodsir has 

 described a vegetable (^Sarcina) occurring in the stomach of persons 

 affected by water-brash. Mr. Busk has published some notes on the 

 same (Microscopic Journal). 



2. In Mammalia. — Serrurier and Rousseau, I'lnstitut, 1841. 



3. In Birds. — Fungoid formations in the lungs and air-cavities of 

 birds have been observed by Mr. Owen in Phosnicopterus ruber, Phil. 



* This view has received considerable confirmation from the recent ob- 

 servations of the celebrated chemist Prof. Mitscherlich, communicated at 

 p. 300 of this Journal ; and also by the curious observations of M. Blondlot, 

 published in the ' Comptes Rendus ' for Sept. 11, 1843.-— W. F. 



f This has been admirably done by Dr. J. H. Bennett in an elaborate 

 memoir published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 vol. XV. part 2. The conclusions however drawn from the facts stated in the 

 present article relative to the important offices which these remarkable pro- 

 ductions are intended to fulfill in nature, will be found to be somewhat dif- 

 ferent, and well justify the publication of this paper, which was received 

 from our friend seven months ago. — W. F. 



