68 Transactions of the 



which invades various parts of the body. Large quantities of a fatty 

 material accumulate from a supposed deficiency in the quantity of 

 alkaH in the blood. Complexity of structure in the known cha- 

 racters of organic compounds seems to be never better exemphfied 

 than it is when large quantities of fatty matters enter into nitro- 

 genous compounds. As an example, the decompositions effected by 

 butyric acid seem to be endless, and more especially so when con- 

 nective and fibrous tissues enter into these decompositions, and 

 give new shapes and characters to the organic molecules. These 

 again are immensely changed, and other transformations effected 

 by the putrefactive process. Animal matter in a state of putrefac- 

 tion acts as a ferment, rapidly changing albuminoid and fatty 

 particles into a fungus, and is capable of causing their metamor- 

 phosis into sugar, alcohol, and carbonic acid. It may be possible 

 that an allied process is going on in connection with the Madura 

 foot disease, a putrefactive ferment, a process of chemical disintegra- 

 tion while the hmb is still in connection with a living body, 

 although itself dead. I have before ventured to affirm that 

 parasitic fungi are characterized throughout nature by feeding on 

 effete or decayed matters, and I see no reason for changing my 

 opinion. This view of them seems to have been floating in the 

 mind of the Kev. Mr. Berkeley, for he concluded the paper I have 

 already referred to, by observing : — "In some cases it would seem 

 as if the foot was already in a diseased state when the fungus was 

 introduced : at least the history of one case which apparently 

 commenced with a boil in the instep, and opened by a thorn, indi- 

 cates such a lesion as might well encourage the growth of a fatal 

 parasite." 



I readily admit that Dr. Carter's great experience of Mycetoma, 

 and the many opportunities he has had of making examinations 

 soon after amputation of the foot, entitles his opinion to great 

 weight. I should indeed have been much inclined to accept his 

 views from this circumstance, provided he could have furnished 

 indisputable or reasonable evidence that " Mycetoma stands for a 

 form of swelling which is caused by the growth of a fungus." I 

 have endeavoured to place the matter before you in an impartial 

 spirit, hoping thereby to assist in the elucidation of an important 

 question, at the same time trusting I may have made the subject 

 sufficiently interesting to induce the Fellows of this Society to in- 

 vestigate it for themselves : if they do I can promise this much, 

 that they will find it of far more importance, if not more interesting, 

 than the markings on Diatoms and Podura scales. 



