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covered, having either a casual or accidental relation to disease. He 
had seen Sarcina Goodsirii in five out of ten cases of cholera where 
vomiting was present as a symptom. Dr. Lindsay entered into 
details respecting the so-called “ cholera fungi,” or “ cholera corpus- 
cles,” or “ cells,” &c., about which there had been so much discussion, 
and which he referred to the ordinary articles of food. 
Referring to the parasitic vegetable organisms that attack the 
human body, Dr. Lindsay stated that no part of the human system 
could be considered free, under certain circumstances, from the lia- 
bility to their attacks, the delicate ramose mycelium of Fungi being 
capable of development in almost every situation. Among the lower 
animals they had been frequently noticed to occur to such an extent 
as to constitute distinct disease. The following instances were 
cited :—On the body of the silk-worm, Vibrios, Triton, and frog ; on 
the scales of fishes; in the abdomen of hens, doves, and other birds, 
and in the trachea and lungs of birds; in the yolk of hens’ eggs; on 
the face of the mouse; in the nasal mucus of the horse in glanders ; 
and in the contents of the stomach and intestines of rabbits, oxen, 
sheep, and pigs. In the human subject they are familiarly known as 
the cause of some very disagreeable, though not dangerous cutaneous 
diseases, e. g., Favus, Mentagra, some kinds of Porrigo and Pityriasis, 
and are also common in some forms of Aphthe. They have been 
found coating the tongue, the fauces and esophagus; also on ulcer- 
ated spots in the intestines; in vomited matter; in the feces in very 
many disorders, e.g., cholera, typhus, dothin-enterite, dysentery, and 
after simple errors in diet; in the posterior chamber of the eye; in 
tubercular cavities in the lungs and in sputa; in the fibrinous casts 
‘of the smaller bronchi expectorated in pneumonia, in carious teeth, in 
urine, milk, mucus, and pus, &c. In almost all the instances above 
mentioned, the microscope could alone detect the existence of the 
parasites, and many an obscure and anomalous case of disease has the 
‘microscope been instrumental in clearing up. Dr. Lindsay remarked, 
however, that he was not prepared to grant it the same supreme im- 
portance in diagnosis which is attributed to it by some observers ; 
but the fact could not be doubted that it was a most important adjunct 
alike to the general medical practitioner, the man of science, and the 
pharmaceutist, in their search after truth. 
Dr. Lindsay alluded to the Torbanehill coal case as one in point, 
which, although totally unconnected with medicine, has called for the 
scientific opinions of medical men. 
He concluded his paper by some interesting observations on the 
