48 
Pure and Mixed Linseed-Cakes. 
mushroom-like fungi (aspergilli) referred to in the preceding 
paragraph. 
Professor Tuson sums up the results of his examination as 
follows ; — 
1st. No mineral poison was discovered in the oats by chemical 
analysis. 
2nd. The oats were extensively contaminated by a mould-like 
fungus. 
3rd. It is known, on good authority, that many mould-like 
fungi are poisonous to animals. 
4th. The infected oats were given by Professor Varnell and 
others to several horses, and the animals subsequently died. 
He infers from the facts referred to in his report, that in all 
probability the infected oats were the cause of the death of the 
horses. 
On showing the drawings of the fungi to Mr. Jabez Hogg, 
whose intimate acquaintance with microscopic fungi is well 
known, that gentleman at once identified the fungi, portrayed in 
Fig. 38, as a variety of Aspergillum. 
Mr. Hogg further stated he had no hesitation in saying that 
the horses were killed by the fungus attacking the oats ; for he 
* knew of many instances in which sickness and death had been 
occasioned in various animals by the very same species. 
In support of his conclusions, Professor Tuson quotes a passage 
from the Rev. M. J. Berkeley's ' Outlines of British Fungology,' 
in which the author says • " It is observable that the same bad 
effects are sometimes produced by mouldy (fungus-containing) 
provisions which are produced by ergot in bread." And also 
extracts from a lecture by the Rev. Edwin Sidney, at the 
Annual Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, held at 
Norwich, July 18th, 1849. The lecturer describes a fungus 
called Ustilago hypodytes as "a species of penicillium which 
attacks grasses or hay, and appears to be quite poisonous. The 
structure, in a very young stage, is thread-like ; but all traces of 
mycelium (spawn) soon disappear, and nothing remains but a 
mass of minute spores. In addition to the ruin of the grass, this 
fungus is most pernicious. According to Leveille, the immense 
quantity of black dust resulting from it in the hay-fields of 
France, produces disastrous consequences on the haymakers, 
such as violent pains and swellings in the head and face, with 
great irritation over the entire system." 
Mr. Sidney further states that penicillium, the mould on hay, 
" is found on bread, also in the inside of casks ; and that there 
is reason to believe its spores to be poisonous, for two coopers 
who entered a great tun, covered with this mould, to clean it, 
inhaled them, and were seized with violent pains in the head, 
