MYCOPHAGY; 



OR, SHOULD WE EAT FUNGUSES?* 



" DIVIDE and govern " is the political axiom believed 

 to guide the conduct of him who aspires to be what 

 old Homer styles " a king of men." The same axiom 

 must, in another sense, control the conduct of those 

 seeking to make themselves acquainted with the king- 

 dom of nature, and to use the knowledge thus acquired 

 in the advancement of science, and in increasing the 

 happiness and comfort of their fellow-creatures. The 

 field of observation is so immense that we are bewil- 

 dered by its greatness, and lose ourselves vaguely 

 wandering amid its wonders, until, satisfied with the 

 comparative fruitlessness of a general survey, we set 

 limits to our investigations, and confine them to some 

 particular department attracting us by its importance, 

 or by its being specially within the sphere of our know- 

 ledge or our tastes. 



It is thus that men acquire precise information, and 

 discipline their faculties for the making of new and 



* ' Outlines of British Fungology,' by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 M.A., F.L.S. ; with coloured Figures and Dissections of 170 

 Species, by W. Fitch. * The Esculent Funguses of England,' by 

 the Rev. Dr Badham ; with 20 coloured Plates. ' Illustrations 

 of British Mycology,' by Mrs Hussey ; First and Second Series ; 

 140 Plates. 



