350 FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 
and well do they warn us not to form too hasty conclusions ; 
nevertheless, with one voice they proclaim these fungi to 
be more abundant and much more important than is com- 
monly supposed. They are undoubtedly the secret or ob- 
scure and often unsuspected- proximate causes of many 
diseuses of animals and. of man— operating either directly 
or indirectly. We have already seen that the ergot fungus 
of ill-drained localities found on the Broom-grass (Bro- 
mus), and Meadow or Spear-grass (Poa), ete., but chiefly 
on the Rye, sadly deteriorates the blood in every degree 
from intoxication, inveterate ulceration, and mortification 
to absolute death, or from first to last, both in man and 
animals. We cannot dwell here upon the indirect dangers 
of eating the flesh or drinking the milk of such disordered 
brutes; the effects are scarcely less deleterious than the 
fungus itself. 
These remarks are true in general as respects other causes 
or other kinds of vicious vegetation. The black dust of hay 
fields alluded to ( Ustilago hypodytes) acts directly, throwing 
. one into a most violent and dangerous fever; so also, the 
spore dust of the common blue mould (Peneillium), as in 
the case of the coopers previously mentioned. Thus we 
see that these plants act powerfully and strangely on man, 
whether their etherial fumes are inspired, snuffed, or their 
substances taken into the stomach, or even vegetate on the 
outer or inner surfaces of the body. They are also known 
to abound in the lungs of web-footed quacks, and the brains 
of many animals, but we believe they rarely reach the brains 
_ of some Esculapians. 
A French chemist and botanist, M. Dutrochet (as quoted 
by the Rev. E. Sidney), says he found every sort of vege- 
table matter, with only a drop or so of almost any acid, 
yielded a mould; but when albumen contained a neutral salt 
none appeared. If salts of mercury are present the mould 
is stopped. On the contrary oxides of lead hasten it; ox- 
ides of copper, nickel and cobalt retard it; oxides of iron, 
