FUNG US DI8EA8ES OF FN81 < TS 



ants ;m<l wood-eating kinds, are infested by hosts <>f ap- 

 parently harmless microscopic par . both animal 



table, there are i ertain species which L r i\c ri rave 



contagious Though most of these minute para- 



are vegi table, the common silk-worm is in Europe in- 

 ed by what Balbiani regards as an animal, li is a very 

 minute parasitic A.mceba-like form (called Microsporidium 

 bombycis), belonging, according to Balbiani, to a group 

 called Sporozoa, and allied to the psorosperms occurring in 

 fishes, etc., and to the Gregarinas. The disease produced 

 by this organism is called pebrine, its symptoms being the 

 appearance of black specks on the skin and internal organs, 

 while the blood is filled with the spores of the para 

 This di r, is in this countrj practically un- 



known, and Forbes believes thai it probably cannoi be 

 artificially cultivated or propagated in in- ated to the 



Bilk-worm. 



Of tin' vegetable dise*ase-germs, the mosl simple and 

 minute are the Bacteria, Bacilli, and Micrococci., the dis- 

 ss they produce being called " bacterial." The i 

 destructive of these to the silk-worm is variousl) called 



maladie des oo00o ^ ^ ^ 



morts - blancs, maladie O o 00 ^ ^f \ 



des morts- fiats. The V sT~° c °°° 

 germ ol this disea . ]$ Oo ot, 600. % wo* 



which is called Micro- l 



coccus bomb y cis by ( onn 



(1' _. 38), is. like it.- allies, among the smal 



known; it is a microscopic, oval ma-- of protoplasm, and 



multiplies very rapidly by self-division, the new individuals 



often forming chains. In this way a few iutrodi 



into an insect will multiply with immense rapidity, finally 



disorganizing the blood and tissues, and causii g rapid d< 



Lnaecl Diseases" (Psyche, v.. .Ian.. Feb., 1888, 1 5 -In. Kiel. 



and Nitsche's "Lehrbuch des Mitteleuropilischeu Forstinsekl 

 kunde;" the works «>t' Quatrefages and Pasteur 01 form 



disease; and Balbiani's " Le9ons sur les Sporozoain s," Paris, l v - 



