44 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 
easily assimilate; linen; and even our toilet sponges, 
notwithstanding that they are in daily use. They 
may even be found on the most powerful chemical 
substances, on pastilles of sulphur, arsenical solu- 
tions, ete. 
“ The general belief,’ writes Roumeguére, “regards 
fungi as the result of decomposition. This belief is 
due to an imperfect acquaintance with the nature of 
these plants. Fungi are not only found on fragments 
of wood and decayed vegetables, but sometimes even 
on bare pebbles, on glass, on window-panes, on the 
lenses of microscopes, and on other polished surfaces. 
It must be supposed that fungi are able to extract 
the elements of nutrition even in such positions. 
Coprins, which have a surprising power of develop- 
ment, grow on amputated limbs. Young has recorded 
the appearance of a great number of these fungi, still 
in an imperfectly developed state, below the mattress 
on which a man was lying whose leg had been ampu- 
tated. The bed was cleaned, and in nine or ten days 
the fungus reappeared in the same abundance as 
before. Targionni-Tozetti had previously observed a, 
similar growth on the apparatus which surrounded é 
fractured limb in St. George’s Hospital, Modena.” 
Berkeley states that immediately after the 
of any vegetable substance, an army of fu 
