FUNGI. 185 



chemical processes of nutrition are impaired, and the in- 

 cessant changes between the solids and the fluids slacken, 

 then the skin may furnish a proper soil for the fungi to 

 take root in, should the sporules come in contact with it. 

 That dreadful disease known as cancer will no doubt ulti- 

 mately prove of vegetable growth, or a degeneration of 

 the nutritive animal cell into that of a fungoid vegetable 

 cell. 



The Rev. S. G. Osborne, during the cholera visitation of 

 1854, endeavoured to direct public attention to the very 

 general distribution of fungi. He says, " Only those who 

 have closely studied these fungi can be aware how very 

 minute and yet how systematically formed they are. 

 Preparations of a dozen different species, taken from the 

 grape, potato, parsnip, bean, cucumber, cineraria, veronica, 

 &c., many of which have been in fluid for more than a 

 year, retain their form as perfectly as if only taken from 

 the plant a day. No two are alike in form ; but all are 

 alike in this under the very high powers of the micro- 

 scope, they show an external hyaline case, with a second 

 utricle, or inner case, full of minute spores. If a few 

 leaves of the infected haulm of the potato are taken 

 and gently shaken over a piece of black paper, a 

 quantity of very fine white powder is obtained: place 

 a little of this in fluid, under a power of 500 linear; 

 every atom of this powder will resolve itself into a 

 distinct cell, somewhat of the form of an ace of spades, 

 varying more or less in size from about 3-5000ths 

 of an iuch in length. There will be seen a well-defined 

 outline of an inner cell, in which are many hundred 

 greenish-looking spores ; some of the cells will burst, and 

 by using a still higher power it will be seen that these 

 have all the shape and characteristics of the parent cell. 

 Several of them lie easily between the lines on a microme- 

 ter, which lines are just l-5000th of an inch apart. In one 

 of our cuts the destructive ^effects upon the tuber are shown. 

 There can scarcely be oiae spot of earth on which these 

 fungi do not fall in their thousands. Insoluble in nature, 

 they wait where they fall the growth of the particular 

 plant for which each has its own affinity, that if that plant 

 grows on that spot, its enemy is near, on the very soil 



