THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 147 



attention. The life, health and happiness of the human family 

 depends greatly upon a full and correct understanding 1 of the part 

 which fungi occupies in the various diseases with which mankind is 

 "burdened. We might say that to this one ,cause may be traced a 

 greater part of the diseases known to medicine. The food we eat, 

 the water we drink, and the air we breathe are all to a greater or 

 less extent impregnated with poisonous fungoid atoms. 



To bring this chapter consistently within the scope and tenor of 

 your volume, it will be necessary for me to go into the subject in 

 some order and system, and to that end I will divide the matter 

 into the following heads : 



Fungi its action on Man. 



Fungi its action on Stock Animals. 



Fungi its action on Vegetation. 



Fungi its action on Man.- Now in treating the subject under 

 this head, I wish it understood that I do not propose to go into a 

 technical analysis or treatise on the genera, forms, phases and no- 

 menclature of fungi, but rather to speak of it in a general way, and 

 of such as exert a baneful influence. 



In order to investigate its action on man, it is but natural that I 

 should examine more especially as to the vehicles that carry the 

 deleterious cause to the circulation and tissues. It may be by in- 

 halation, but it is certainly more frequently carried into the system 

 by means of food and drink. That fungal spores are constantly 

 afloat in the air, is certain, and apart from my own investigations, 

 I could cite a number of reliable authorities. 



The experiments of Dr. Cunningham, conducted in India, have 

 been convincing on this point *" Spores and other vege- 

 table cells are constantly present in the atmospheric dust, and 



*From microflcopio Examination.* of Air, from the 9th Annual Report of tuo Sanitary Com- 

 mission. Calcutta, 1872. 



