124 



country to check the " adulteration " of cotton. He claimed for the 

 " new machine " that it would not only effectually stop any tampering 

 with cotton, but would save half the usual waste, make stronger and 

 better threads, do away with a great deal of the present costly 

 machinery, and dispense with a gi-eat deal of labour. The machine 

 was worked on the ground where the cotton was grown, the seed 

 cotton being spun directly it was culled, so that it could not be 

 adulterated in any way. He produced some specimens of the cotton 

 for examination. 



The Chairman observed that no doubt it was a clever invention, 

 but it was likely to damage the English and Scotch cotton trade. 



Mr. F. C. Dennet did not beheve it would have that effect, but 

 would be more likely to improve it, since it would send into the market 

 a really bond fide article ; a thread far better in every way than that 

 which could be made from bale cotton. 



MICROSCOPICAL 

 ON "THE 

 INDIA." 



MAY 2STH, 1876. 



MEETING.— MR. T. W. WONFOR 

 SO - CALLED FUNGUS FOOT OF 



That fungi were able to induce disease was an accepted theory. 

 Their spores, being very minute, are able to penetrate the pores and 

 openings on the cuticle of animals and plants, and, having once found a 

 nidus, to thrive at the expense of the host into which they had insinu- 

 ated themselves. Nature, though, had fixed a barrier between the 

 sporule and the organism on which it might settle, and that barrier 

 was healthy vitality. The vitality might be impaired by disease or 

 old age, but when this did not exist, it had not, at present, been shown 

 that the organisms would necessarily succumb to the attack of the 

 fungus. It had been specially noticed that the less vitalized portions 

 of plants and animals were subject to and became the prey of fungus 

 growth. This might especially be seen in the leaves of plants in the 

 autumn, and on the epidermal tissues, such as the wing covers, and 



