62 Transactions of the 



specimen of this " variety " appears to have perplexed Dr. 

 Ballingall, as well as the late eminent microscopist, Professor 

 Quekett, both of whom were in consequence unable to pronounce 

 the disease to be fungoid; due to the growth and ravages of a 

 fungus. At the end of the year 1869, a foot of the doubtful 

 kind was placed for examination in my hands, and those of a well- 

 known excellent pathologist and histologist: I was requested to 

 report on the specimen. You may imagine, therefore, I was most 

 anxious that everything should be conducted with the care and 

 caution which so responsible a position would naturally inspire. I 

 will tell you at once I was not a little surprised and disappointed 

 to be obliged to come to the conclusion that no trace of a fungus 

 could be found in any part of the foot ; I say disappointed, because 

 from what I had read about the fungus-foot disease of India, I ex- 

 pected no difficulty whatever in the matter, and I will add more by 

 way of caution, that the first few sections which were made and 

 washed in distilled water, for the purpose of freeing them from some 

 apparently crystalline and fatty matters, showed both the spores 

 and mycelium of a fungus. Here then I thought there could be 

 no mistake, and put the specimens away to further examine at a 

 more convenient opportunity. The next day I resumed my work, 

 and made other sections from the foot, which I at once transferred 

 to a weak solution of spirit and glycerine. On examining them I 

 was not a little puzzled to find abundance of fatty matters, but not 

 a particle of anything like a fungus. Subsequent examinations 

 convinced me an error had occmTed somewhere in my first observa- 

 tions, and I then examined the distilled water. A single dip from 

 the bottle gave me a plentiful crop of fungus, exactly resembling that 

 found in my first specimens. On taking up a well-corked bottle of 

 arsenical solution standing near the distilled water, I saw it con- 

 tained numerous tufts of a fungus, which, as you know, abound 

 everywhere, and spread with amazing i-apidity upon almost every- 

 thing, ripening and depositing their spores, with powers of self- 

 increase so rapid as to be almost incredible. The naked-eye 

 appearances of this fungus-foot may thus be briefly stated. The 

 foot was greatly enlarged and swollen ; all fair outline being lost. 

 There were numerous excrescences or raised bodies over the upper 

 surface; none on the lower; which at first sight might be sup- 

 posed to communicate with the internal j)arts ; but on attempting 

 to pass a small silver probe through the centre of any one of them, 

 it could not be made to penetrate more than a very short distance, 

 and I doubt very much whether there could have been any actual 

 sinus leading to the bone at any time. There might, however, 

 have been an ulcerating sore during life, which the hardening 

 nature of the methylated spirit, in which the specimen was pre- 

 served, had entirely obliterated. On making a vertical section of 



