Royal Microscopical Society. 65 



should, if possible, be cleared up. Are not the algoid filaments 

 another instance of a vegetable growth rapidly developed after 

 death in a putrescible substance ? It is a matter of some moment 

 in a scientific point of view, that this question should be carefully- 

 investigated and answered, for I find the eminent Mycologist 

 already referred to accepting Dr. Carter's hypothesis as a demon- 

 strated fact, describing the fungus as a new species, and assign- 

 ing to it a name ; remarking, at the same time, that " although the 

 fungus resembles closely the genus Mucor, there is no columella in 

 the sporangium, a character which accords with Chionyphe rather 

 than Mucor ; " nevertheless he places it with the latter, while he 

 admits that Chionyphe is one of those species only found under 

 snow. He concludes with what I should regard as a bit of special 

 pleading for a pet hypothesis, because you must remember while we 

 are discussing the action of a fungus in a Hving animal, Berkeley 

 refers solely to its action on dead matter; and whatever that 

 action may be, there can be no similarity in the two processes. 

 " It is," he observes, " highly probable that many of our common 

 moulds commence with a similar condition. The first indication 

 of a change in tainted meat, is seen to commence with little 

 gelatinous spots of vegetation of various colours, the early stage of 

 some curious species of Aspergillus, or PeniciUium." * Hospital 

 gangrene may, he thinks, also depend upon a similar cause. I 

 think, neither Mr. Berkeley nor anyone else can bring forward 

 a particle of proof in support of such a probability, and which 

 is after all no nearer the truth than the many guesses that have 

 been made at a germ-theory of disease generally. To establish 

 Dr. Carter's fungoid origin of disease, it is absolutely necessary to 

 show that the spores of a vegetable fungus can get into the dense 

 structures of the animal body during life, there germinate, and 

 destroy the hard bony tissues, and ultimately kill the patient. At 

 a glance, the character of the tissues might seem to make this 

 impossible ; and Mr. Berkeley evidently has his misgivings on the 

 point, for he writes, " the httle granular bodies are so closely 

 involved in stearine, that their germination is scarcely probable." 

 If we next take the symptoms and appearances which usher in the 

 disease as described by Dr. Carter, we shall see how far it may 

 become possible for fungi to pass in through the sinus openings. 

 " The foot swells up, is of a dark colour, numerous sinuses appear, 

 with pink stains or streaks, which penetrate the subjacent tissues, 

 and end in spherical groups of bright orange- coloured particles. 

 The sinuses are more or less lengthy and tortuous, and will not 



* In the ' Intellectual Observer ' we are favoured with a somewhat remarkable 

 series of illustrations, of some very curious matters. A whole page is given, 

 resembling nothing in the shape of fungi, but rather what I should regard as 

 extraneous vegetable particles in a specimen. 



