MOULD FUNGI AS EXCITING AGENTS OF DISEASE. 635 



sprouting, and without causing any disturbance. 

 Wyssokowitsch* was able to demonstrate their presence 

 in these organs in large numbers even after seven days. 

 If, on the other hand, the spores of certain species of 

 aspergillus and mucor were injected into the veins, the 

 sprouting of the spores occurred at various parts of the 

 body, and masses of mycelium were formed, which were 

 visible to the naked eye. If very numerous spores were 

 injected, and if very large numbers of these mycelium 

 masses developed, the animals died. As has been above 

 described (see p. 123), the largest number of the de- 

 posits after injection of aspergillus and mucor occurred 

 in certain organs. This apparent choice of certain parts 

 of the body does not depend only on variation in the 

 distribution of the spores and on greater deposit of the 

 spores in certain organs differing according to the species 

 of fungus injected ; but the sprouting of the spores and 

 the development of the mycelium in the organs is also 

 more or less favoured by certain other conditions, so that, 

 for example, spores of aspergillus glaucus form the most 

 luxuriant mycelium in the kidneys and in the liver, and 

 the spores of mucor the most distinct and numerous 

 deposits in the kidneys, mesenteric glands, and Peyer's 

 patches, while in other parts the spores either do not 

 sprout at all or only to a very imperfect degree. 



That only a few species of mould fungi occur in the Limited 

 bodies of warm-blooded animals seems to be chiefly, but of th 



not exclusively, due to the fact that only these forms fun ^i in the 



. , -, animal body 



can, at the high temperature of warm-blooded animals, 

 develop a sufficient amount of energy to enable them to 

 live in concurrence with the cells of the animal body 

 (see p. 136). The limitation of their fructification to 

 the surfaces of the animal body is explained by the 

 necessity for contact with free air. 



On the whole, among the infective agents of higher 

 animals the mould fungi play only an insignificant part, 

 the nutrient conditions which they find there are un- 

 suitable, the temperature being high, the juices of the 

 body being highly albuminous and weakly alkaline, and 



* Zeitschr.f. Hygiene, vol. i., Part 1. 



