1849.] 225 



Dr. Leidy offered the following observations: — 



From the opinion so frequently expressed that contagious diseases and some 

 others mi^ht have their origin and reproductive character through the agency of 

 cryptogamic spores, which, from their minuteness and lightness, are so easily 

 conveyed from place to place through the atmosphere, by means of the gentlest 

 zephyr, or even the evaporation continually taking place from the earth's surface ; 

 and from the numerous facts already presented of the presence of cryptogamic 

 vegetation in many cutaneous diseases and upon other diseased surfaces, I was 

 led to reflect upon the possibility of plants of this description existing in healthy 

 animals, as a natural condition; or, at least, apparently so, as in the case of 

 entozoa. Upon considering that the conditions essential to vegetable growth 

 were the same as those indispensable to animal life, I felt convinced that ento- 

 phyta would be found in healthy living animals, as well, and probably as fre- 

 quently, as entozoa. The constant presence of mycodermatoid filaments growing 

 upon the human teeth, the teeth of the ox, sheep, pig, &c., favored this idea, and 

 accordingly I instituted a course of investigations, which led to the discovery of 

 several well characterized forms of vegetable growth, of which, at present, I will 

 give but a short description, for the purpose of establishing priority, and propose 

 giving a more detailed account of them, with figures, in the second volume of the 

 Journal. 



Enterobrus* a new genus of Confervaceae. Simple, attached, isolated filaments 

 consisting of a long cylindrical cell, (containing protoplasma, granules, and large 

 translucent globules enveloped in a primordial utricle,) with a distinct coriaceous 

 peduncle or stipe of attachment, and at length producing at the free extremity 

 one or two, rarely three, shorter cylindrical cells, (filled with the same matter as 

 the parent cell.) 



Enterobrus elegants. Filaments, olive brown, brownish, yellowish, or color- 

 less, at first forming a single spiral turn, and then passing in a straight or gently 

 curved line to the free extremity. Peduncle, or stipe of attachment, adhering 

 very firmly, coriaceous, uniformly brownish, narrower than the frond cell, papil- 

 lary, columnar, elongated conical or pyramidal, expanded at base and at point of 

 attachment to frond cell, marked with longitudinal lines, and frequently with 

 transverse annular constrictions, wnth no definite interior structure. Length 

 from l-3750th to l-400th of an inch; breadth l-3200th to l-16C6th. Frond cell 

 much elongated, frequently reaching the le,ngth of 2 or 3 lines, uniformly cylin- 

 drical, excepting at free extremity, where it is usually clavate ; breadth in full 

 grown individuals pretty uniformly l-935th of an inch. Contents consisting of a 

 colorless protoplasma, with more or less numerous fine, translucent, yellowish or 

 colorless granules, measuring about 1- 15,000th of an inch, and numerous large, 

 colorless, transparent globules or vesicles filled with fluid, averaging the l-2870th 

 of an inch in diameter. End cells only existing in full grown individuals, one, 

 usually two, rarely three in number ; the first one cylindrical, l-86th of an inch in 

 length by 1-1 000th in breadth, filled with more granules and less globules than the 

 parent cell; end cell clavate, l-135th of an inch long by l-750th broad, at the 

 clavate end l-638th, filled with granular matter and a few globules. 



*E»'rtpov et ^pvof. 

 31 



