76 Miscellaneous. 



three different kinds. One is exceedingly minute, forms a single 

 spiral, is endowed with a power of rapid movement, and appears to 

 be the Spirillum unclula of Ehrenberg ; the second is an exceedingly 

 minute, straight and short filament, with a movement actively mole- 

 cular in character, and is probably the Vibrio lineola of the same 

 author ; the third consists of straight, motionless filaments, mea- 

 suring 1-1 125th in. long, by 1-15, 000th broad ; some were however 

 twice, or even thrice this length, but then I could always detect one 

 or two articulations, and these, in all their characters, excepting want 

 of movement, resemble the Vibrio. In the rectum of the same animal 

 the same filamentary bodies are found, with myriads of Bodo intes- 

 tinalis ; but the third species, or longest of the filamentary bodies, 

 have increased immensely in numbers, and now possess the movement 

 peculiar to the Vibrio lineola, which however does not appear to be 

 voluntary, but reactionary ; they bend and pursue a straight course, 

 until they meet with some obstacle, when they instantly move in the 

 opposite direction, either extremity forward. 



But it must not be understood that these facts militate against the 

 hypothesis of the production of contagious diseases through the 

 agency of Cryptogamia. It is as well established that there are mi- 

 croscopic Cryptogamia capable of producing and transmitting disease, 

 as in the case of the Muscardine, &c, as that there are innocuous and 

 poisonous fungi. But to suppose that they are the sole cause of con- 

 tagious disease, is to doubt the possibility of other causes, such as a 

 change in the chemical constitution of the atmosphere, the elements 

 of our food, &c, and is as ridiculous as the psoric origin of most 

 diseases of that miserable charlatanry denominated homoeopathy. 

 In many instances it is difficult to distinguish their character whether 

 as cause or effect, as upon diseased surfaces, in Tinea capitis, aphthous 

 ulcers, &c. In a post-mortem examination in which I assisted Dr. 

 Horner, a few weeks since, twenty-eight hours after death, in mode- 

 rately cool weather, we found the stomach in a much softened con- 

 dition. In the mucus of the stomach I detected myriads of myco- 

 dermatoid filaments, resembling those growing upon the teeth ; sim- 

 ple, floating, inarticulate, and measuring from 1 -7000th to 1 -520th 

 of an inch in length, by 1 -25,000th of an inch in breadth. It is 

 possible they may have been the cause of the softened condition ; but 

 I would prefer thinking that swallowed mycodermatoid filaments 

 from the teeth, finding an excellent nidus in the softening stomach, 

 rapidly grew and reproduced themselves. In the healthy human 

 stomach these do not exist. 



In the stomach of a diabetic patient, I found so very few that they 

 probably did not grow there, but were swallowed in the saliva. 



Dr. Leidy afterwards exhibited numerous drawings of the entophyta 

 described by him, and also specimens, beneath the microscope, grow- 

 ing from the mucous membrane of the small intestine of Julus, and 

 from the exterior surface of entozoa infesting that cavity. — Proceed- 

 ings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. iv. 

 p. 225. 

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