66 Transactions of the 



usually yield to jpressure of the prohe," &c. Nevertheless we are 

 expected to see that the soft, yielding spores of a fungus will find 

 their way through these tortuous sinuses, passing along in an 

 opposite direction to a strong outward flow of a sanious discharge, 

 which usually accompanies such a condition of disease. Again, the 

 existence of a sinus presupposes a grave state of disease. Dr. 

 Carter does not for a moment believe that the sporules, although 

 minute enough, could possibly enter through the circulation. A 

 more generally expressed opinion, and an equally probable mode of 

 conveying the contagium to the internal parts of the body, the 

 endemic character of the disease, would, in this way, be more easily 

 accounted for in districts where the growing crops of rice were at 

 one time seen to be devastated by " smut," and thought to be the 

 cause of the cholera visitation. But it could not be believed to 

 enter through the blood, because in such a case it would be impos- 

 sible to understand why the spores of a fungus should select a hand 

 or a foot, and find in them a more congenial soil than in other parts 

 of the human frame ; why one foot should be destroyed and the 

 other escape ; or why the poison should stop at the part where the 

 bones of the leg join the foot, and so forth. 



The constant occurrence in the internal organs of algoid growths 

 has long been noticed — Sarcina, for instance, in the stomach and 

 bladder ; but after the disease has existed for years, it has not been 

 observed to destroy life; indeed it often produces so little dis- 

 turbance, that it is only detected after death. The other so-called 

 fungoid diseases, such as those which some believe to be the cause 

 of gangrene, cholera, &c., I need not dwell upon, because they rest 

 their claims to consideration upon the most inconclusive of exj)eri- 

 ments and observations. 



The incubation of the disease demands a passing notice; as, 

 according to Dr. Carter, it more frequently affects the agricultural 

 classes, men in the vigour of life ; is not associated with any con- 

 stitutional causes, and is not known to be transmitted. But as 

 agricultural labourers go about barefooted, and seldom wash their 

 feet thoroughly, it therefore happens that the spores of a fungus 

 penetrate the hardened skin, and produce " worse ravages than the 

 dreaded guinea- worm." I must confess I do not understand this 

 peculiar line of argument; for although I can easily see how the 

 guinea-worm makes its way through the skin, particularly if 

 softened by standing in water, I cannot see how the spores of a 

 fungus should be capable of exerting the same force as an animal 

 parasite provided with a mouth and jaws, and a strong desire to 

 provide a comfortable lodging in the leg or foot of the first animal 

 that comes in its way. 



It must be admitted, if the disease originates in a fungoid 

 growth there should be no instance of a foot which does not 



