342 The Fungus Disease of India. [part ii. 



importance ; not only of importance in relation to the particular malady in which 

 these peculiar substances are found, but to that class of diseases — a class at present 

 very large and still on the increase — whose existence and extension is attributed solely 

 to the pernicious influence of vegetable parasites. 



Briefly stated, Dr. Carter describes the dark material in the first variety of the 

 affection as consisting almost entirely of a fungus in its sclerotial form, i.e., one of 

 the " resting " states common to fungi and somewhat analogous to the " resting " states 

 of perennial plants — examples of which are furnished by bulbs and tubers of various 

 kinds. The substance found filling the cavities in the pale variety is considered to be 

 indicative of an advanced stage of the disease due to "a change — seemingly a degenera- 

 tion" — of the darkened masses. 



The fact that a pink mould has been developed in connection with specimens of 

 both varieties has served as a link between the dark and the pale material ; and this 

 link has, so to speak, been completed by the circumstance that Dr. Carter has observed 

 a case of the disease — practically forming, as before mentioned, a third variety, in which 

 a pink coloration of the tissues, associated with innumerable pink particles^ — " fup^s- 

 bodies," were its characteristic features. Here, therefore, we seem to have the key 

 to the arch which sustains the hypothesis that the Madura-foot and hand-disease is 

 originated and propagated by means of a peculiar fungus. 



It is consequently of importance that all who desire to form a correct estimate 

 of the value of so important and popular a doctrine — of importance were it only because 

 of its popularity — and absolutely incumbent on such as by their writings promulgate 

 views based, as far as the human subject is concerned, almost entirely on this peculiar 

 malady, to examine this particular point closely. To the best of our knowledge, the 

 following particulars comprise all that has been published with regard to the pink 

 mould and the pink particles. With regard to these two sets of observations, it may 

 be noted that, in the first instance, attention was arrested by the occurrence of pink 

 particles comparable to " red-pepper grains " in the diseased tissue, accompanied by 

 some pink staining. 



Some time subsequently it was observed that a pink or crimson-coloured mould 

 had developed on separate specimens of the ochroid variety on two different occasions, 

 and on particles of it placed in boiled rice-paste: — (1) on the exposed portion of a 

 foot which had been macerating in water for eighteen months — the growth extending 

 " even to the sides of the bottle ; " (2) on a preparation which " had been put into a 

 bottle with some firesh spirit " for preservation about two months previously ; the part 

 of the specimen which was above the surface of the fluid, owing to the evaporation of 

 the spirit, acquired " a red tinge, and soon after there appeared a thick layer of crimson 

 mould ; " and (3) in connection with some soft particles from a foot which had been 

 placed in some boiled rice-paste 9, day after amputation : ten days afterwards buff and 

 green moulds were observed, and a few days later a red tint was distinguishable, and 

 stained filaments were traced to the particles. 



