EFFECTS OF FUNGI. 87 



specific weight of one sixty-second part; which would give 

 scarcely less than a drachm by weight of some poison, 

 suspended in each cubic foot of the atmosphere of London. 

 That quantity of air may be inhaled during common re- 

 spiration, in fifty inspirations ; and, as most persons respire 

 not less than fifteen times a minute, a cubic foot of air may 

 pass through the bronchial tubes in three minutes and a 

 half. How much, then, of such a poison, may be present- 

 ed to the bronchial surface, in the course of a single night ! 

 With how much more force, too, will it act, when it assails 

 the system through that channel! Substances presented 

 to the gastro-intestinal surfaces are mixed up with various 

 secretions, mucus, saliva, gastric juice, bile, pancreatic 

 liquor, and special exudations from the peculiar glands of 

 each successive section, while aerial poisons, unmixed and 

 unfettered, are applied at once to a surface on which, be- 

 hind scarcely a shadow of a film, circulates the blood pre- 

 pared, by the habitual action of the respiratory function, 

 to absorb almost every vapor, and every odor, which may 

 not be too irritating to pass the gates of the glottis. It is, 

 perhaps, for this reason, that we have so instinctive a dis- 

 like of mouldy smells, and of humid musty places, and un- 

 happily, we discover, that in the abodes of filth and poverty, 

 where misery dwells, and moulds do most abound, the great 

 non-contagious epidemics find and destroy the greatest 

 number of victims, because there is the especial domain 

 of fungiferous potency. 



I have hitherto spoken to you of the action of fungi, 

 when swallowed, or when inhaled by the respiratory or- 

 gans. I am now about to direct your attention to a not 

 less curious department of our subject. I mean the asso- 

 ciation of obvious fungous growths with the cutaneous and 

 mucous diseases both of men and animals. In the very 



