FUNGI. 327 
mouldy cheese. The same may be said regarding 
the existence of fungi in the inside of an egg, 
hazel-nut, or apple. Professor Panceri inoculated 
a fresh ostrich egg at Cairo with a fungus, thus 
proving that its shell is permeable by spores. 
Countless millions of the subtle seeds of fungi, 
invisible to the naked eye, and light almost as the 
particles of vapour around them, are continually 
floating in the air we breathe, or swimming in- the 
water we drink, or lying amid the impalpable dust 
and sand of the soil, waiting but the combination 
of a few simple circumstances, the presence of 
warmth or moisture, or a suitable matrix, to dis- 
play their vital energies, and to burst into full, 
free, independent life. Myriads of the minute 
germs of the various moulds which approach us 
in our houses, and fasten upon different articles 
of domestic use, may be and often are dancing 
about in the air-currents of our apartments, though 
totally invisible to us; but could we sufficiently 
magnify them, as a sunbeam darted in at our win- 
dows and illuminated their bodies, they would 
appear like so many cannon-balls, moving rapidly. 
up and down, and in every direction. The micro- 
scopist and the chemist have demonstrated the 
existence of these germs in greater or less quan- 
tity in the air of the country as well as in the air 
of the town, out-of-doors as well as in-doors; and 
