148 THE STUDY OF FUNGI. 
some of the species might be lost, but there is less prospect of euch an 
event now, because from the same low form of fungus will arise one, 
two, three, four, or more different kinds of fruit, all of which are capable 
of becoming again the starting points of their species. For instance, 
there are the dust-like productions called conidia, then the macroconidia, 
the pycnidia, the stylospores, the ascospores. Many an interesting 
research has shewn this to be the case, and proof after proof is furnished 
by those who investigate these things, that the moulds are the fore- 
runners of higher forms of fungoid life. These furnish interesting 
materials for those who take up the study of fungi. The ease of the 
study is not increased thereby, but the pleasure and the profit are. 
How useful is the vinegar plant. And what is it but a vegetable 
production, caused by the growth of the mycelium of a fungus (Penicil- 
lium crustaceum) in saccharine liquor, when not in a state of fructification ? 
The fermentation of the dough of bread is due to the growing of a 
fungus, by which the bread is made light and wholesome. It is a species 
of Torula, which forms the yeast; this feeds upon the sugar of the flour 
and sets free carbonic acid gas all through the dough, and, when it is 
placed in the oven, the gas is driven off entirely, the fungus is baked, 
its vitality utterly destroyed, and its remains, which of course do not 
come out with the gas, are eaten as part of the bread. Thus every day 
of our lives we are fungus-eaters. 
Whilst we have spoken of the uses of fungi, it cannot be denied that 
there are many instances in which they do great injury. Smut is very 
often found in fields of corn, although it has now by artificial means 
been rendered less common than formerly. It destroys the good qualities 
of the ear at any early period of its growth. Bunt does the same, 
differing however from smut, inasmuch as its presence is not so easily 
ascertained. Human beings suffer occasionally from the attacks of 
fungi. There is a disease from which the natives of India sometimes 
suffer, called the fungus-foot of India; strange to say, the disease never 
ascends higher than the base of the leg-bone, just above the ankle. Mr, 
Berkeley has given an excellent paper on this malady in the “ Intellectual 
Observer” of 1862. The first case he mentions is one in which the bones 
were ‘perforated in every direction with roundish cavities varying in 
size from that of a pea to that of a nut or pistol bullet, the cavities 
being filled up with a dense fungous mass of a sienna red within, but 
externally black, and resembling a small dark truffle. From these 
cavities canals lead to the surface, from which a purulent foetid discharge 
is poured out, often accompanied by little pieces of the fungus.” Two 
other kinds of foot fungus are recorded by Mr. Berkeley in the same 
paper. 
In our own country there is a disease to which we are liable, 
which causes a good deal of unpleasantness rather than pain. I mean 
ringworm. Ringworm is a fungus, it has its mycelium, and bears its 
spores, which are very minute and easily conveyed through space. 
Whether the spores would develop if the skin were perfectly healthy, 
or whether some weakening cause be needful, is not for me to examine. 
Insects also are liable to be attacked with fungoid parasites. The silk- 
“tr 
