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are attacked by this peculiar disease — as well as numerous smaller 

 preparations . They not only closely examined the condition of the 

 tissues and the nature of the morbid materials present in the various 

 forms of the disease, but morbid tissues and products in other diseases 

 affecting similar parts of the body ; they also made various attempts 

 at cultivating the morbid products as well as the study of the resultant 

 organisms and the effects of re-agents on them and other vegetable 

 growths. 



In the pale variety they found the bones were reduced to mere 

 masses of soft fat, the muscular and tendinous structures were well 

 preserved, but the most careful microscropic examination of all the 

 tissues and materials failed to afford the faintest evidence of the 

 presence of any fungal or fungoid bodies, or of anything save degenera- 

 tion of the normal tissues. In a very early stage of this disease, 

 mere alterations in the normal fat were found, and in more ad\-anced 

 cases these degenerative changes could be noticed, showing very con- 

 clusively that it was essentially a degeneration of the fatty tissues. 



In the dark variety the same degeneration of the bones, the same 

 preservation of the muscles and tendons, less fatty matter, and the 

 presence of the dark grains like gunpowder mentioned before. Here, 

 too, no trace of fungal or fungoid substances was found in any part of 

 the tissues. Not only were both the pale and dark products subjected 

 to every possible test with re-agents and failed, save in some vague 

 points of form, to present anything which could suggest their vegetable 

 or parasitic origin ; but in various cultivation experiments no fungus 

 growth was produced in any material in which the supposed spores 

 were planted that was not also produced in some of the same materials 

 in which nothing was planted. Never in any experiment did the black 

 jnatter evidence any tendency to germinate or become altered in any 

 way. 



Similar experiments with the pale failed to give positive results ; 

 in fact, the fungus Chionyphe Carteri is unhesitatingly pronounced not 

 to cause the disease, and, moreover, that it cannot be developed from 

 the elements contained in the morbid products. 



In short, the " Fungus Foot" is a misnomer, and does not owe its 

 origin to a fungus. This is very important, because up to these ob- 

 servations, the opinion that the " Madura Foot " was produced by 

 fungus has formed the basis for generalizations as to the supposed 

 cause of other diseases. 



