296 THE MICROSCOPE. 



It is now more than a quarter of a century since Pro- 

 fessor Owen first pointed out the vegetable nature of a 

 diseased growth found in the lungs of a Flamingo he 

 was dissecting. Soon after, Bassi discovered the vege- 

 table character of a disease which caused great devas- 

 tation among silkworms ; and, about the same time. 

 Schonlein, of Berlin, was led to the detection of certain 

 cryptogamic vegetable formations in connexion with skin 

 diseases. 



The Favus fungus is perhaps best known from its 

 having been the first to attract the attention of Schonlein. 

 It is commonly called cupped ringworm, or honeycomb 

 scall, but it is very rarely seen in this metropolis. The 

 crust is of a dingy yellow colour, and almost entirely 

 composed of the Acliorion, mixed with epithelial scales 

 and broken hairs. When the fungus once establishes 

 itself, so fearful are its ravages, that in a very short space 

 of time the whole of the cutaneous surface, with the ex- 

 ception of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, 

 becomes covered with it. As the spores penetrate the 

 hair-follicles they destroy the sheaths of the hairs, which 

 shrivel up and lose their colouring matter, and then break 

 off, leaving the surface bald. 



Upon comparing the fermentation of the achorion 

 fungus with that of good healthy yeast, it will be seen to 

 be almost identical. In the first place, it is as actively 



in the first edition of this bookJ1854) we expressed a belief in "the fungoid 

 origin of cancer." Subsequent examinations of diseased structure more or less 

 tend to confirm this view ; it appears that in this disease we have superadded to 

 a fungoid growth " degraded germinal matter" which, by its entrance into the 

 circulation, produces a ferment and blood poisoning. The circular animal cell 

 degenerates, is converted into the ovoid or elongated vegetable cell, and ulti- 

 mately the structure, or some organ it may be, is changed into that remarkable- 

 looking caudate body, the typical cancer cell. This in some respects bears the 

 most perfect resemblance to certain spores of fungi, and to the yeast torulse. 

 As might be expected, its form is modified and its character more or less 

 changed by the peculiar kind of nourishment and condensed tissue in which it 

 is deposited and grows ; its powers of growth are, so to speak, perverted and 

 degraded, and then, as we see in other instances, it soon obtains a power of in- 

 definite multiplication, and destroys, not only the vitality of the organ, but the 

 individual. M. Davaine believes he has traced splenic disease in sheep to the 

 entrance into the blood of bacterium-like bodies, and fungi ; a zymotic disease 

 is caused by the ferment, and by the rapid growth of the fungi the life of the 

 animal is quickly sacrificed to the destroyer. 



To mount specimens of fungi, separate them, and add a drop or two of spirit: 

 when this lias evaporated, add a drop of glycerine solution, or balsam dissolved 

 in chloroform, and put on a glass cover. If the balsam renders the asci too 

 transparent, use gelatine : no cells are required. 



