76 Miscellaneous. 
three different kinds. One is exceedingly minute, forms a single 
spiral, is endowed with a power of rapid movement, and appears to 
be the Spirillum undula of Ehrenberg ; the second is an exceedingly 
minute, straight and short filament, with a movement actively mole- 
cular in character, and is probably the Vibrio lineola of the same 
author; the third consists of straight, motionless filaments, mea- 
suring 1-1125th in. long, by 1-15,000th broad ; some were however 
twice, or even thrice this length, but then I could always detect one 
or two articulations, and these, in all their characters, excepting want 
of movement, resemble the Vibrio. In the rectum of the same animal 
the same filamentary bodies are found, with myriads of Bodo intes- 
tinalis; but the third species, or longest of the filamentary bodies, 
have increased immensely in numbers, and now possess the movement 
peculiar to the Vibrio lineola, which however does not appear to be 
voluntary, but reactionary ; they bend and pursue a straight course, 
until they meet with some obstacle, when they instantly move in the 
opposite direction, either extremity forward. 
But it must not be understood that these facts militate against the 
hypothesis of the production of contagious diseases through the 
agency of Cryptogamia. It is as well established that there are mi- 
croscopie Cryptogamia capable of producing and transmitting disease, 
as in the case of the Muscardine, &c., as that there are innocuous and 
poisonous fungi. But to suppose that they are the sole cause of con- 
tagious disease, is to doubt the possibility of other causes, such as a 
change in the chemical constitution of the atmosphere, the elements 
of our food, &c., and is as ridiculous as the psoric origin of most 
diseases of that miserable charlatanry denominated homceopathy. 
In many instances it is difficult to distinguish their character whether 
as cause or effect, as upon diseased surfaces, in Tinea capitis, aphthous 
ulcers, &c. Ina post-mortem examination in which I assisted Dr. 
Horner, a few weeks since, twenty-eight hours after death, in mode- 
rately cool weather, we found the stomach in a much softened con- 
dition. In the mucus of the stomach I detected myriads of myco- 
dermatoid filaments, resembling those growing upon the teeth ; sim- 
ple, floating, inarticulate, and measuring from 1-7000th to 1-520th 
of an inch in length, by 1-25,000th of an inch in breadth. It is 
possible they may have been the cause of the softened condition ; but 
I would prefer thinking that swallowed mycodermatoid filaments 
from the teeth, finding an excellent nidus in the softening stomach, 
rapidly grew and reproduced themselves. In the healthy human 
stomach these do not exist. 
In the stomach of a diabetic patient, I found so very few that they 
probably did not grow there, but were swallowed in the saliva. 
Dr. Leidy afterwards exhibited numerous drawings of the entophyta 
described by him, and also specimens, beneath the microscope, grow- 
ing from the mucous membrane of the small intestine of Julus, and 
from the exterior surface of entozoa infesting that cavity.—Proceed- 
ings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. iv. 
p- 225. 
