RECAPITULATION. 



render less improbable, the agency of fungi in the causa- 

 tion of diseases of a febrile character. 



A curious citation was subsequently made, of the f ungi- 

 ferous condition during epidemics and epizootics. These 

 moulds, red, white, yellow, gray, or even black, stained 

 garments, utensils and pavements, made the fogs fetid, 

 and caused disagreeable odors and spots, even in the re- 

 cesses of closets and the interior of trunks and desks. 



These moulds existed, even when the hygrometric state 

 did not give to the air any unusual moisture for their sus- 

 tentation and propagation. Their germs seemed to have, 

 as have epidemics, an inherent power of extension. 



The singular prevalence of malarious diseases in the 

 autumn, is best explained by supposing them to be pro- 

 duced by the fungi, which grow most commonly at the 

 same season. The season of greatest photophytic activity, 

 is, in every country, the period of the greatest malarious 

 disturbance. The sickly season is, in the rains in Africa, 

 in the very dry season in Majorca and Sardinia, in the 

 rainy, season of the insular West Indies, and in the dry 

 season of Demerara and Surinam, Even when the vege- 

 tation is peculiarly controlled, as in Egypt by the Nile, 

 and the cryptogami are thus thrown into the season of 

 winter and spring, that season becomes, contrary to rule, 

 the pestilential part of the year. 



Marshes are a safe residence by day, whilst they are 

 often highly dangerous by night. In the most deadly 

 localities of our southern country, and of Africa, the 

 sportsman may tread the mazes of a swamp safely by day, 

 although at every step, he extricates vast quantities of the 

 gases, which lie entangled in mud and vegetable mould. 

 This point, so readily explained by reference to the ac- 

 knowledged nocturnal growth and power of the fungi, is 

 a complete stumbling-block to the miasmatists. 



