234 VEGETABLE PAEASITES. 



wanting, and when it occurs is found on Achorion, or more fre- 

 quently on epidermal scales. 



Literature. Ardsten, in ' Gazette des hopitaux/ Paris, 1851, 

 October 14th, pp. 477, 478 ; and ' Annales des maladies de la 

 peau et de syphilis/ Paris, Aou*, 1851, 2d series, vol. iii, p. 281 



PSEUDO-PARASITES 

 Belonging to the class of Alg& and Fungi. 



1. The cholera-fungi or algae of Swayne, Britten, and JbJudd 

 are best known among the pseudo-parasites, being, to a great 

 extent, remains of food or medicines, and occurring also in many 

 other diseases. One portion of these bodies is in reality nothing 

 more than the alga of fermentation (Torula = Cryptococcus cere- 

 visite) and is likewise found in the urine of cholera patients. 

 Another part consists of carbonates or chalky concretions with 

 cellular tissues. Many resemble even certain eggs of the Hel- 

 minthi, which is easily perceived on comparing the illustrated 

 representations of this cholera fungus which have appeared in 

 the ' Illustrated Leipsic News/ 



2. Bodies analogous to bezoar-stones, which have passed off 

 from the bowels or during vomiting, have likewise been believed to 

 be vegetable parasites. 



Denis describes such a body thrown up by vomiting, which 

 Braconnot recognised to be ligneous (ligneux), in the case of a 

 man thirty-six years old, and another in the stool of a man 

 eighty years old. Laugier thinks that a part of them which 

 exhibit distinct woody fibres may be traced to the remains of 

 chewed wood, especially to liquorice. They are the so-called 

 Egagropiles of authors, found on men and animals, on horses, and 

 are traceable to the husks of oats, as they are also found in men 

 feeding on oatmeal. 1 I would add, that they are probably also 

 produced where bread baked of coarsely ground flour forms an 

 article of consumption. Others may perhaps be traced to 

 undigested shells (of almonds, plums, fruit, and potatoes, or 

 of coriaceous fungi). There is no characteristic sign whatever 

 of a cryptogam discernible. The case of obstruction of the 

 ductus Bartholin., mentioned by Strahl, in Vierordt's ( Archiv/ 

 1847, pp. 481, 482, seems to be of the same kind. A mass of 



1 Appendix C. 



