60 VEGETABLE PARASITES 



water to macerate and wash off the effete scarf-skin 

 from our bodies, the less liable will the skin and 

 its appendages be to afford a suitable soil for the 

 germination of the vegetable parasites. Medical 

 experience shows this most perfectly. The cuta- 

 neous diseases due to the presence of vegetable 

 growths are more frequent amongst the lowest 

 classes, where dirt and lack of cleanliness prevail. 

 But dirty persons in the upper classes are equally 

 liable to be infested ; immunity being in direct 

 ratio to the use of soap and water. We have no 

 need to pause here to discuss the point whether 

 people at all ages offer a better field for the ger- 

 mination of vegetable spores when their bodily 

 health is reduced. It is at present enough for us 

 to know that these parasites will flourish on the 

 most healthy person, greatly assisted, of course, by 

 lack of personal cleanliness, because then the seeds 

 of the fungus have all the conditions requisite for 

 their development. In disease, one condition is 

 to be remembered as favoring the opportunity for 

 growth of the vegetable parasites : it is, that then 

 the healthy renewal of tissue is either much re- 

 tarded, or perhaps wholly ceases. Hence spores 

 have a better chance to develop. Bodily cleanli- 



