( 3l ) 
NEW BOOKS, WITH SHORT NOTICES. 
The Fungus Disease of India: a Report of Observations. By T. R. 
Lewis, M.B., and D. D. Cunningham, M.B., Special Assistants to 
the Sanitary Commissioners of the Government of India. Calcutta: 
Government Printing Office—As to the important question whether 
this disease—which is not uncommon in India—is caused by the 
growth of a peculiar fungus, the Chionyphe Carteri, or not, the 
present work is intended to decide. It is in point of diction a clear, 
readable account of the evidence pro and con on the point, and it 
moreover contains an abundance of very admirable illustrations 
(some of them coloured), both of the appearance of the limb in its 
unmagnified state and of the different forms that are observed when 
high powers are employed. And what is the result arrived at by the 
two thoroughly competent observers whose labours we have now 
before us? It is this, that the so-called fungus-foot of India is not a 
disease produced or promoted by the growth or development of any 
species of fungus whatever. And what are the arguments in favour 
of this view of the matter? They are two or three. In the first 
place the nature of the roe-like bodies of pink and black masses has 
been made out to a certain extent. At all events, it is shown that 
they are not in any shape or form a fungus growth. On the contrary, 
the investigations made into the matter have shown that the first of 
the peculiar morbid products is simply “ fat in various modified 
forms.” The second did not display “the slightest trace of a fungus 
or of other vegetable organisms” in its constitution; and the third 
consists “ of degenerated tissue mixed to a greater or less extent with 
black pigment and fungoid filaments.” Now, fungoid elements have 
refused to grow when an attempt to cultivate them has been made. 
Therefore the authors think there is no need taking them into con- 
sideration. But what do they give us in their stead? On this point 
it must be confessed the book is particularly barren. It is true they 
cite two or three experiments which we confess do not prove very 
much, and then they go on to conclude that “ taking everything into 
consideration, it seems probable to us that some local degeneration 
takes place in the madura-disease giving rise to a product which is 
ih one of its varieties peculiarly adapted to the development of vege- 
table organisms.” From which it appears to us that it would have 
been better for the authors to have withheld the publication of their 
researches till they had more positive evidence and less speculative 
fancies to give us on such an important subject as this one un- 
doubtedly is. 
VOL. XVII. D 
