"joun'a^ST^s'm'] Cultivation of Microscopic Fungi. 19 



Eeport,* but for the benefit of those who may be engaged in or 

 undertake such examinations, it may be useful to give a brief 

 statement of some of the methods employed, and the results arrived 

 at by those excellent observers. 



The questions they have endeavoured to answer are : — 



1st. " Are any forms of cryptogamic growth present during hfe 

 in the blood or secretions of diseased animals ? " 



2nd. " If so, of what character are they, and what is their 

 probable source ? " 



All relation between the cryptogram and the disease, as cause 

 or effect, beins; necrlected, 



• • "I'll 



The supposition by some, which they give succmctly, is that 

 " disease is produced by the presence in the economy of minute par- 

 ticles of protoplasm (micrococcus of Hallier), resulting from deve- 

 lopment and breaking-up of the spores or mycelium of a fungus ; 

 from which granules, they assert, can be developed perfect forms 

 of fungi, of recognizable genera and species, by proper ' cultivation ' 

 outside of the body of the animal fluids containing them," In the 

 fresh venous blood from a pleuro-pueumonic cow under 1200' dia- 

 meters, they found no unusual appearances to healthy blood as regards 

 corpuscles, spores, or mycehum, but, " single or in masses," minute 

 granules or molecules were seen in the field as " glistening points," 

 if not at first, at least after exposure to the " air for a few hours." 

 These j)articles have been claimed as the course of disease, pro- 

 nounced to be vegetable in character, and " as being developed from, 

 and capable of reproducing certain common fungi popularly known 

 as rusts, smuts, or molds." 



The fluids were obtained in a state of purity, by using short 

 glass tubes about fVflis of an inch in diameter, made by seahng one 

 end at the flame of a Bunsen burner, holding the tube in it nearly 

 upright with pincers till it is red hot, rapidly drawing the tube out 

 to a narrow neck and closing it in the flame ; the hermetically 

 closed tube with a partial vacuum is called a " vacuum tube." The 

 insertion of the point into a vein, compressed above and below, 

 when broken off* allows the blood to enter, and the tube on with- 

 drawal is immediately sealed by the flame of a spirit lamp. The 

 fluid can now be kept for experiment without the entrance of 

 foreign spores ; but to place any portions of this in conditions 

 necessary for cultivating without risk from then- entry, offers a 

 diflaculty, upon which those observers reasoned as follows, and 

 which so entirely corresponds with my own views as expressed in 

 another paper, that I venture to quote their words. 



" By no amount of precaution or complexity of apparatus is it 

 possible to secure such absolute isolation of a fragment of tissue or 



* Eeports of the diseases of cattle in the United States, made to the Com- 

 missioners of Agriculture, Washington, Government Printing Office, 18u0. 



c 2 



