so Transactions of the Ameiucan Institute. 



as a consequence of the disease — tlie fungi germ finding no congenial 

 soil for its development in the healtliy organism, but appearing when 

 a morbid condition has been ah'eady established. But to this view is 

 oj)posed the fact that diseases known to be attended with fungoid 

 growths may be communicated by inoculation with the germs of the 

 fujigi ; while on the other liand it may be urged that inoculation is a 

 much more effectual mode of introduction than the mere external 

 contact of the germs with the mucous m_embrane. The question is 

 too large to be discussed here ; but what is a truth beyond question 

 is, that certain diseases which are known to be highly infectious, and 

 others which are often epidemic, are actually attended with a large 

 development of fungoid vegetation. Of the first class may be 

 mentioned the small-pox, the fungoid nature of which has been 

 demonstrated by the able researches of our countryman, Dr. J. K. 

 Salisbury, of Cleveland, Ohio, and of the second, the cholera. Dr. 

 Salisbury has also shown that typhoid fever is occasioned by a fungus 

 in the blood, which destroys the white globules, filling them with 

 its spores. 



There are various cutaneous diseases in which a fungoid growth 

 accompanies a morbid condition of the skin, of which it is either the 

 cause or the consequence. The tinea favosa^ a disease of the scalp, 

 happily rare, covers the head with yellow scales, which consist almost 

 wholly of such a vegetation. The thrush in tlie mouths of children, 

 is made up of white patches of similar vegetable character. On the 

 other hand, there are often parasitic vegetable growths lining the 

 stomachs or portions of the alimentary canal of insects and higher 

 animals — sometimes even of man himself — which produce no imme" 

 diatcly injurious efiects. Some of these exhibit great variety and 

 not a little beauty of form. In the stomach of an herbivorous bee- 

 tle, the 2^(^-^^'ulus cornutus, which lives in stumps of old trees and 

 feeds on decaying wood. Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, found a very 

 luxuriant growth of this kind. The breathing tubes of insects are 

 also often choked with similar vegetation, especially in warm coun- 

 tries ; the spores having been introduced through the spiracles or 

 breathing pores in their sides. Dr. Carpenter remarks that it is not 

 at all uncommon in the West Indies to see individuals of a species of 

 Polistes, corresponding to the wasp of England, flying about with 

 plants of their own length projecting from some parts of their bodies. 

 And similarly it may be remarked that we often see minute little 

 crustaceans, the Cyclops of the Cypris, so small as to seem only like 



