THE BIOLOGY OF MICROBES, ETC. 127 



straw-fungus has been generally discredited, until 

 the year 1889, when Mr. C. Candler 1 argued in 

 favour of Salisbury's theory that fungus-dust 

 from mouldy straw produces a disease resembling 

 measles ; and that this fungus-dust when introduced 

 into the human body, develops into microbes (!). 

 In the great epidemic of measles in Victoria during 

 the years 1874-75, Candler states that he could not 

 discover any instance of measles in a dwelling from 

 which damp straw (in the form of bedding) had 

 been excluded, but in every house where measles 

 occurred, the presence of damp straw in the bed- 

 rooms was easily made out. There is nothing 

 impossible in the supposition that damp straw 

 favours the growth of microbes ; and it might con- 

 ceivably be proved by sufficient evidence that this 

 is a favouring or even a necessary condition for the 

 growth of the specific virus of measles. But the 

 evidence which Candler adduces is quite inadequate 

 to prove that the cause of measles is a fungus, since 

 it might just as well be Keating's micrococcus or 

 any other microbe. 



Micrococcus gonorrhcece. Drs, Neisser, 2 Bokai, 

 and Finkelstein 3 have described micrococci in the 

 urethral discharge and the pus of gonorrhoea. 

 These microbes (Fig. 33, 16) measure 0'83 ^ in 

 diameter, and occur singly, as diplococci, sarcinse, 

 and in zooglcean groups. They frequently adhere 

 to the epithelial cells and pus- corpuscles. Dr. 



1 The Prevention of Measles, 1889. 



2 Centralblatt fiir d. Med. Wissensch., 1879. 



3 Prager Med. Chir. Presse, 1880. 



