94 MOULDS 



Continuing my enumeration of the fungous diseases of 

 animals, I cite Ehrenberg as having detected a vegetation, 

 clisetopliora meteorica, growing on the scales of the salmo 

 eperlanus, and creating disease. Henle has found vor- 

 ticellae on the toes of Tritons, producing gangrene and 

 death. Hanover saw another kind of vegetable, which, 

 accidentally attached to dead flies in damp places, could, 

 by inoculation, be communicated even to water sala- 

 manders. Dr. Stelling, of Cassel,. found similar products 

 on frogs, weakened by other experiments; and Valentine 

 tells us that Aeliyla prolifera, a kind of mould, very often 

 attacks animals, preventing the development of the ova of 

 fishes, and rapidly extending from an individual to a 

 group. 



M. de Longchamps having occasion, in 1840, to dissect 

 an eider duck (anas molissima) while yet warm, found a 

 mould on the mucous surface of its air tubes. The mem- 

 brane beneath was diseased, and the spores of the plant 

 were little more than half the size of blood-globules. 

 Rousseau and Serrurier observed a different kind of mould 

 in pigeons and fowls, as well as in the cervus axis and 

 testudo indica. In a male parroquet, which died tuber- 

 culous, a greenish pulverulent mould was found on a false 

 membrane between the intestines and vertebral column. 

 Moulds in animals are also described by Muller, Retzius, 

 Mayer, Jaeger, Heusinger, Thiele, &c. 



A stryx nictea (water fowl), brought alive from Lap- 

 land to Stockholm, died dyspnoeal. The lungs and tho- 

 racic cavities were found to be universally covered with 

 mushroom-like, flat, rounded bodies of a yellow-white 

 color, separable from the mucous membrane without in- 

 jury to its surface. 



A falco rufus, in the zoological collection at Berlin, 



