266 American Quarterly Microscopical Journal. 



multiplying until the person is infected in every part and fatally 

 stricken ? " " Who would escape fertilization if the hypothesis 

 were true?" "Who would get well from a disease due to living, 

 self-propagating, contagions?" 



An exact answer to such questions might be very difficult ; but 

 a reply is very easy. What is a " poisonous, glandular secretion," 

 or a "nervous impression," but the abnormal action of a living 

 organism — a cell, or collection of cells, in the human body ; and 

 who could recover from a poisonous secretion generated by the 

 cells; or, who could escape the "secretion" or "impression?" 

 One question is as logical as the other. In either case, atmos- 

 pherical or other conditions, the limited circle of life, and 

 environment of the organisms, would doubtless stay the spread. 



There are many vegetable parasitic diseases of the human body, 

 " self-propagating contagions," that Dr. Tilbury Fox and others 

 have described. What prevents their universal dissemination ; 

 and why should a person ever recover from their attack ? To use 

 a more tangible illustration, what but the environment of the 

 grasshoppers prevents them from spreading and eating all the 

 succulent plants of the United States of America ? I fear that 

 Dr. Richardson has not fully comprehended the advance that 

 has been made in a knowledge of these organisms within the last 

 few years. 



That they are agents, in some way, in the dissemination of 

 septic matters, and not the direct cause of decomposition, is 

 probable. That they may appropriate material of live bodies, upon 

 which they grow, to their own use, and thus produce a chemi- 

 cal change in the material supplies, or in the nervous centers, is 

 also probable. But before we can make positive assertions, one 

 way or the other, further experiments and investigations are 

 necessary. 



At this stage our subject opens into such a wide field, — not 

 only for discussion, which to a certain extent is profitable, but 

 for very patient and systematic research, — that we have not more 

 than glanced at a few of the seemingly important points. At some 

 future time, possibly not very distant, our attention may be directed 

 this way again. 



Spore Glossary. 



For convenience of study I have compiled a glossary of terms, 

 in pretty general use, on the subject of Spores. The list might 



