FUNGI. 349 
The existence of a flora within the bodies of 
living animals is one of the most extraordinary 
facts which the microscope has revealed to us. 
A curious plant is occasionally met with in the 
frothy vomit ejected in severe cases of stomach 
disease. It resembles a number of minute wool- 
packs strung together, and is known as the Sar- 
cina ventricult of Goodsir. It is found in the 
human kidney and lung, as well as in the stomach. 
Upwards of ten other varieties of entophytes have 
been discovered in various parts of the human 
body, and described and figured by M. Robin in 
his magnificent work, ‘Des Végétaux qui croissent 
sur ’homme et sur les animaux vivants. Man, 
however, is less infested by entophytes than other 
animals, on account of the cooking process to 
which his food is subjected, which effectually de- 
stroys the germs of parasites, and his high degree 
of organic activity, which is unfavourable to their 
development. Animals of feeble vitality and slug- 
gish habits, using solid innutritious food difficult 
of assimilation, and therefore remaining long in 
the alimentary canal ; or animals swallowing their 
food in large morsels, to which the germs of plants 
may adhere, are rarely, if ever, free from these 
entoparasitic plants, which, however, when few in 
number, or not of excessive size, are quite harm- 
less. They are found principally in those portions 
