386 THE CHIGNON FUNGUS. 
must do the artist credit to say he has most faithfully and 
cleverly portrayed the actual appearances presented by 
the parasite. The observations now recorded are in com- 
plete harmony with those of Dr. Braxton Hicks on the 
Volvox, and De Bary in his work published in 1864, at 
Leipsic, “Die Mycetozoen, Ein Beitrag zur Kentniss Der 
Neidersten Organismen,” and are completely confirmatory 
of the opinion before advanced by myself, that the fungi 
found upon or within man belong to one genus, and un-- 
dergo an infinity of variations under different circum- 
stances. In the present case the fungus approaches to 
the character of Torula rather than any other. There 
are many most interesting questions that cannot be dis- 
cussed here. The only one I need refer to is the influ- 
ence which this species of parasite has in the production 
of disease. In the immediate condition in which we find 
it on the hair it need cause but little anxiety; but the 
minute form as seen in Fig. 4, transplanted to a suitable 
soil—and the scalp of delicate children best furnishes it 
—would produce disease of the scalp: of that I have no 
doubt. Luckily, the tissues of adults, namely, those who 
_ wear chignons, are not prone to the more severe forms of 
diseases produced by vegetable parasites; and as the 
mass of false hair used in England is free from the fungus 
described above, the total danger, on the whole, is slight- 
—Hardwicke’s Science-Gossip. 
Nore.— Torula, Penicillium, and Oidium are microscopic genera 
of fungi. The word algal is derived from alga, a sea-weed, of which 
there are many minute species. Pseudopodia is derived from the 
Greek, meaning “false-feet ;” they are the organs of locomotion, being 
Mere extensions of the side, or walls of the body of Infusoria. 1 
Fig. 5 they radiate like hairs from the body of the plant. Ameba is 
& low Infusorium, or Rhizopod. 
