INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 263 



them in every direction. If the green oak, which is used at 

 Tunbridge for ornamental purposes, and which owes its tint 

 to the mycelium of Peziza wruginosa, be examined, the 

 coloured threads will be found in every possible position. A 

 striking instance of a similar nature, where a little Graphium 

 is the parasite, is represented in the Botanische Zeitung;* and 

 instances are given by myself and Mr. Broome, in the Annals 

 of Nat. Hist., and in a paper on wood from the Arctic Regions 

 in the London Journal of Botany. Very recently, in a piece 

 of drift-wood from Wellington Channel, presented to me by 

 Captain Inglefield, I have detected a similar fact amongst 

 Lichens, which is the more valuable, as it seems to indicate 

 that in an early stage of growth they may sometimes derive 

 nutriment from their matrix. 



261. In speaking of the effects of Fungi, in the production 

 of disease, it may not be amiss to add a few words on the sup- 

 posed capability of their spores producing fevers and allied 

 disorders in man. It is evident that mere surmises as to the 

 possibility are not admissible as proofs, nor any estimates, 

 however large and veracious they may be, respecting the in- 

 exhaustible supplies of spores ready to enter with the air into 

 the cavity of the lungs, or to be swallowed with food. Nor 

 can the supposed prevalence of Fungi in stations subject to 

 miasma, be of much greater weight. The remarks of Mitchell 

 and Cowdellj-f" though men of considerable acquirements, rest 

 merely on theory, and not on actual observation ; nor do I 

 know a single fact, the legitimate inference of which is that 

 they can produce fever. The influenza of 1837 was sup- 

 posed, by several scientific men in France, to have this origin ; 

 and no mean abilities were called forth in support of a similar 

 notion, when this country was visited by cholera, in 18-i9. 

 The curious j^oint was, that bodies were really found in the 

 dejections of cholera patients, the nature of which has not yet 

 been determined. Like the spores of bunt, and, perhaps, 

 some other Fungi, they were undoubtedly consumed with their 



* 1847, tab. 4. 



t Mitchell, on the Cryptogamous Origiu of Fevers, Philad. 1849. 

 Fuugous Origin of Cholera, Cowdell, 1848. 



