140 
ANNALS OP THE 
84. Verrucaria alba, Schrad. 
85. Gollema palmatum, Ach. 
86. Collema nigrescens, Ach.? 
87. Leptogiim tremelloides, Fr. 
88. Parmelia cerina. 
D. " pallescens. 
E. " elegans, Tuck. 
F. " parietina. Apparently an abnormal state. 
Charace^. 
CJiara vulgaris, L. St. Lawrence River, and streams inland ; very common. 
ON FUNGI, THEIR RELATION TO DISEASE. 
By John Lowe, M.D., M.R.C.S., Eng., Fel. Bot. Soc, Edin., Cor. Mem. Bot. Soc. Ca., 
Surgeon to the West Norfolk and Lynn Hospital. 
Read nth April, 1861. 
It is now more than twenty years since it was first discovered that vegetable 
growths could exist upon the human body. From the earliest age diseases of the 
skin were known and described : the symptoms and appearances they presented 
were matters of ordinary observation, and rules of an empirical character were 
laid down for their treatment. 
During all this time, it is probable, nay almost certain, that in some forms of 
the disease fungi were constantly present, but it was not until the year 1839 that 
this fact was demonstrated. To M. Schoenlein, of Berlin, we are indebted for this 
most important discovery, which, but for the rapid advance that has been made 
in scientific knowledge during the present century, and above all in the proper use 
of the microscope, would, like many other wondrous things, be still one of nature's 
own secrets. Even now, strange to say, there are those who regard the growth 
described by Schoenlein as an abnormal production of the body, anddeny its vege- 
table origin ; but a vast amount of accumulated evidence leaves no room for 
doubt upon this point, to any one who is at all conversant with the character, 
structure and behaviour of the humblest individuals of the plant world, the Fungi. 
Regarding it then, as an established fact, with botanists and the medical pro- 
fession generally, that a fungous growth is really present in the majority of skin 
diseases, I shall abstain from entering on the discussion of the reasons for upholding 
this opinion and leave the facts, to be presently mentioned, to speak for them- 
selves, — suffice it to say here, that men of the greatest eminence as botanists and 
^physiologists entertain no doubt on the subject. 
