EXTRACTS FROM THE PROCEEDINGS. 



xxxiii 



Meeting, as the mould was identical with that (B.Bassianum) which 

 produces the disease called Muscardine in silkworms, or a mere 

 variety. Mr. Berkeley took occasion to make some remarks On 

 Fungi which attack animal tissues, and cause either disease or 

 death. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between those which 

 merely germinate or establish themselves on moist surfaces, but 

 never penetrate the tissues, and those which, spreading in every 

 direction, live at their expense. 



It is not uncommon to find fungi, belonging in almost every 

 instance to those species of mould which are most widely diffused, 

 on the mucous lining of the lungs. It does not, however, appear 

 that they act immediately by the destruction of the tissues ; but by 

 blocking up the passages and preventing the oxidation of the blood 

 fatal mischief may ensue. Fungi, again, occur in some of the fluids 

 of animal frames, as, for instance, the so-called Gidia in the urine, or 

 Sarcina in the stomach, especially when corroded by cancer ; and pro- 

 bably sometimes act, like other strange bodies, as irritants. There 

 are others, however, which luxuriate in animal tissues. Some of 

 the most obstinate cutaneous disorders either owe their origin to 

 fungi, or are aggravated by their presence ; and there are cases in 

 which, when one or two spores of a fungus, as of the JBotryosporiutn 

 just mentioned, gain possession of the tissues, they penetrate to 

 such an extent that death ensues, and the whole mass seems turned 

 into a fungus. Liebig has lately endeavoured to show that this 

 disease arises from the want of some peculiar chemical constituent 

 which is proper to the mulberry-leaves on which silkworms live ; 

 but though this circumstance may favour the development of the 

 mould, which the Editor was not prepared either to confirm or dis- 

 pute, it is clearly not the efficient cause. There is no pretence that 

 the silkworm must be in an unhealthy state to allow the fungus 

 to establish itself, as a few spores, placed lightly on healthy cater- 

 pillars, have been quite sufficient to propagate the disease. 



Especial attention was then drawn to the fact that in almost 

 every case of rinderpest Dr. Lionel Beale had found organisms in 

 the voluntary muscles and those of the heart, which were probably 

 fungoid. The nearest resemblance is to be found in one which 

 occurs in a fish, Scicena umbra, which is most probably one of the 

 fish-moulds. The organism in Rinderpest is probably a state of 

 some fungus (for Dr. Cobbold is decidedly of opinion that it is no 

 entozoon) ; but as the same has been observed for the last thirty 

 years in deer, sheep, pigs, rats, &c, whether in a healthy or un- 

 healthy state, it has clearly no specific rel ation to it. The muscles, 



YOL. i. d 



