I 
ON THE SO-CALLED CHIGNON FUNGUS. 193 
teen attached to it ; yet, up to the present date, no affection of the skin what- 
ever has been produced by it. I hope soon to be in a position to place before 
you a full description and illustration of my fungus, which is one of the most 
interesting and beautiful hitherto observed. 
K I remain, Sir, yours faithfully, 
"Finsbury Square, March, 18G7. "H. Beigel, M.D., etc." 
On the 5th, and again on the 19th of March, I brought the subject 
before the Pathological Society. A report of what took place at the last 
meeting I quote verbatim from the 'Medical Times' of March 30, 
1867, p. 347, the ■ Lancet ' having omitted it. It runs thus : — 
. Dr. H. Beigel exhibited specimens and drawings of a microscopic plant 
found on human hair. It appeared in knots round the hair, which could not 
readily be removed. Specimens had been examined by Kiiehenmeister, who 
pronounced it an alga belonging to the genus Pleurococcus, but of a new 
species, which lie proposed to name after the discoverer. 
" Dr. Tilbury Fox said they w r ere only Gregarines, of which he knew some 
time ago, and of which he now had specimens germinating in a saccharine 
solution. He proposed to bring them before the Society at a future period." 
In the May number of ' Hardwicke's Science Gossip,' Dr. Tilbury 
Fox publishes a paper on the " Chignon Fungus," which is interest- 
nig in so far as it shows Dr. Fox's development of knowledge on the 
subject, pari passu with the development of the plant as shown by 
me at the Pathological Society. My preparations were there first ex- 
hibited on the 5th of March, when Dr. Fox inspected them carefully 
and found them " very remarkable." But for want of time I had to 
postpone those demonstrations, which took place on the meeting of the 
19th March. Here Dr. Fox publicly declared that he had seen my 
preparations ; that they were doubtlessly Grer/ar'uirs, and that at a 
future meeting he would place his own preparations before the society 
ln - order to convince the members that he was right. But to my very 
great surprise I find that Dr. Fox, instead of placing his researches before 
a professional bodv, has preferred addressing himself to the general 
Public, and at the same time adopting my more correct views on the 
subject. He says, "I have never seen a true gregarina in connec- 
tion with the hair, but 1 have recently found a vegetable growth on 
raise German hair, answering in naked-eye appearances to that de- 
scribed by Lindemann as little dark specks surrounding the hair towards 
its end." 
J t is not without interest to see the truth so strongly impressed 
