AND IN EPIDEMICS. 63 



complained of the extreme difficulty of preserving even 

 new articles in their line. Cartwright was surprised at 

 this, because, the meteorological state of the atmosphere 

 would not account for it. It ivas a fungiferous power ir- 

 respective of unusual dampness. 



During the prevalence of the cholera in Philadelphia in 

 1832, I was shown in several different places a splendid 

 vermilion colored mucor, which attached itself to paste, 

 starch and other vegetable preparations. The house- 

 keepers who noticed it then, had not observed it previous- 

 ly, nor have any of them seen it since. At that time, 

 the flies died as in New York in 1799, and were covered 

 with a whitish dust. Confirmatory of these observations is 

 the assertion of Copplez, Lamoth, and Coulin, that ali- 

 mentary substances putrefied with unusual rapidity in the 

 season of cholera. 



In a letter addressed to me on the 3d of December, 

 1847, by Josiah G. Cable, M.D., of the U. S. service, I 

 am informed, that, at Monterey, in a season always ex- 

 cessively dry, and then peculiarly so, under a burning 

 sun, and on a lofty range of country, the men suffered 

 greatly from miasmatic disorders. He also remarked the 

 uncommon fungiferous tendencies of the place, as mani- 

 fested by the mould on fruit, and the cacti, and aloe, and 

 even "when a dead Mexican was turned over on the bat- 

 tle-field, his clothes were found to be covered with a white 

 fungus." 



In fine, the history of epidemics abounds everywhere 

 in examples of the cryptogamous luxuriancy of epidemic 

 seasons. It is noticed by the careless observers of the 

 middle ages, in more than half the recorded cases; and 

 the ancients speak, not unfrequently, of offensive fogs 

 and frightful mists and moulds. The spirit of the mist, 



