290 DR BENNETT ON THE PARASITIC VEGETABLE STRUCTURES 



This observation was repeated and confirmed by FUCHS and LANGENBECK' of 

 Gottingen, who, it is stated, not only found vegetations in the crusts of the Por- 

 rigo lupinosa, but in the majority of skin diseases belonging to scrofulous affec- 

 tions. They have been seen also by TExxoR. 2 



It is to GRUBY of Vienna, 3 however, that we are indebted for the most per- 

 fect description of these vegetations, and for new researches on this subject, the 

 results of which have been condensed in the first section of this memoir. 



LANGENBECK* observed a high degree of fungus development in the body of a 

 man who died labouring under typhus. It extended from the amygdala?, and 

 upper part of the pharynx, through the oesophagus down to the cardia, and con- 

 sisted of cellular non -granular filaments, with superposed nucleated (gekernteri) 

 sporules. On the intestinal ulcers of the ilium and ccecum, there also appeared 

 to exist isolated filaments and sporules, which last were also present in the intes- 

 tinal contents. It is not stated that these vegetations occurred during the life of 

 the individual. 



MEYNIER of Orleans 8 has put forth the opinion, that warts in man are true <jym- 

 nosporanges, and that other human diseases are equally due to the development 

 of different species of cryptogamous plants. This is the case in many of the der- 

 matose affections, especially those of a scaly form. Certain tubercles appear to 

 him similar to the lycopodacia, and in other cases it is the uredines which pro- 

 duce disease. The facts on which such opinions are founded, however, are un- 

 known to us. 



ESCHRICHT of Copenhagen 6 has stated that vegetations sometimes exist in 

 the disease called aphtha. GRUBY ? has also announced the discovery of another 

 cryptogamous plant, distinct from that found in the porrigo, in a skin disease. 

 No details of these observations, however, are given. 



V. 



Conclusions deduced from the facts which have been detailed. 



Are we to consider, that these fungi draw then* nourishment from the living 

 animal tissue, and originate disease, or that they are deposited and grow in the 

 inorganic products occasionally found in the textures, and are the results rather 

 than the cause of morbid actions ? In attempting to answer this difficult ques- 

 tion, it is not my intention to discuss the disputed subject of equivocal generation. 



1 Comptes Rendus de la Polyclinique de Gottingen. Ann. Hannov. de M. Holscher. 1 cap. 1840. 

 Fuchs, Traite des Maladies de la Peau, Gattingen 1840. 



2 Comptes Eendus, torn. xiii. p. 220. 8 Idem. 



4 Frorieps Notizen, No. 252, p. 145, 47, and Valentin's Repertorium, vol. v. p. 46. 



5 Comptes Rendus, vol. xiii. p. 311. 6 Jameson's Journal, October 1841. 

 7 Comptes Rendus, vol. xiii. p. 388. 



