DISEASES CAUSED BY FUNGI. 69 



tliesc cases Fungi originate disease, though it is pretty certain 

 that they frequently aggravate it. The spores of our common 

 Moulds float about everywhere, and, as they grow with great 

 rapidity, they are able to establish themselves on any surface 

 where the secretion is not sufficiently active or healthy to 

 throw off the intruder. Where the spores are very abundant, 

 they may sometimes, like other minute bodies, obstruct the 

 minute cells of the lungs, but there is no reason to believe 

 that they induce epidemic diseases, such as cholera or influ- 

 enza, according to an opinion once somewhat prevalent, what- 

 ever their abundance may be, or however easily they may 

 be collected, as some assert, at the mouths of sewers, or in 

 other situations likely to produce miasma. 



One very curious production, known under the name of 

 Sarcina, from its resembling minute woolpacks, is a pretty 

 constant attendant on cancerous affections of the stomach, 

 though not confined to them. Not only has it been found 

 in certain secretions, but Dr. W. Tilbury Fox has discovered 

 bodies which he cannot distinguish in severe cases of the skin 

 affection called Tinea tonsurans. Dr. H. O. Stephens found 

 an organism of precisely the same structure, though of a 

 bright-orango, on imported bones, at Bristol; and Dr. Lowe 

 found Sarcina in profusion in water in which he had placed 

 some crystals of cholesterine. It is probable that this is a 

 mere condition of some common Mould, but every attempt to 

 make it germinate and produce its proper fruit has at present 

 failed. 



The influence of Fungi in the production of certain cuta- 

 neous disorders is now placed beyond all doubt. A few spores 

 rubbed into the skin, or inserted in it, soon produce the dis- 

 ease known by the name of Porrigo lupinosa, and experiments 

 have lately been made which tend to show that this imme- 



