148 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



usually occur in considerable numbers ; the majority of them are 

 living and capable of growth and. development." 



" Recently a case occurred at the Botanic Gardens at Edin- 

 burgh, which was somewhat novel. The assistant to the Botanical 

 professor was preparing for demonstration some dried specimens 

 of a large puff-ball, filled with the dustlike spores, which he acci- 

 dentally inhaled, and was for sometime confined to his room under 

 medical attendance from the irritation they caused." * 



This seemingly is an endorsement that the air we breathe is at all 

 times more or less charged with fungal material, -which under certain 

 conditions is capable of development to such an extent as to 

 cause local irritation, and as I well know, from personal experience 

 and investigation, will at times produce blood poisoning with its 

 train of concomitant evils. 



Commencing the practice of medicine at the age of twenty-two, 

 I devoted my best energies to that profession, during a period of 

 about forty years. In April, 1846, I left my native state, New 

 York, and settled in the wilds of upper Pennsylvania, where the 

 nearest physician was forty miles away. I was thus alone in my 

 struggle with those enemies of man, death and disease. To my 

 surprise I found, that there was hardly a man, woman or child in 

 that whole region in perfect health. On the mountains and hill- 

 sides, in the valleys, and in the towns, I found that nearly every- 

 one was in some way diseased. 



This was to my mind an anomalous condition of affairs, and be- 

 ing of an investigating turn of mind, I sought in every instance, 

 where I was called upon to attend the sick, to trace its cause. I 

 said to myself, here is my work, which must call forth my full 

 energies. Here begins the work of the doctor, which never has, 

 can or will end ; to examine into the remote and latent cause of 



*Ftmgi. M. C. Cooke, M. A., L. L. D. 



