34 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
“ fungus ” formed in the first instance was merely an ordinary sac or 
cell, after a short time it became elongated and threw otf a filamentous 
material (like that shown by some of the bacteria) with a number of 
spores, and it seemed to him to be a sort of connecting link between 
vegetable growth and that of animal matter. It was not easy to give 
a very satisfactory idea of them by describing them only, but he 
hoped shortly to be able to show some very elaborate drawings which 
would render the subject much more clearly than any verbal descrip- 
tion. He believed that Dr. Klein was the first to discover these 
bodies in the typhoid patient. Whatever it might be, it seemed 
of precisely the same nature as that which was found in cheese when 
it was throwing off the butyric ferment. That which he found in 
the water went through precisely the same stages (and was, perhaps, 
better ideutified in so doing) as that found in the cases of typhoid. 
He had also examined many specimens since, and had been able to 
identify them so clearly that he was more than ever confident that 
the two things were identical, and snrcina was so well marked that 
no one would be able to mistake it when seen of a smaller size. The 
chief difficulty in observing the objects arose from their diaphanous 
nature, which prevented them from being easily seen, and this led to 
the suggestion of injecting the organisms with something which 
would kill, and at the same time would colour them, and this was 
readily done by a small portion of the mercuric iodide. The point 
of course was that by adopting this means it had been possible to 
detect what had entirely escaped the chemical tests which were applied. 
Mr. Charles Stewart said that if he had rightly understood the 
paper, it endeavoured to show that a special fungus found in typhoid 
patients was due to certain spores found in the water with which the 
milk cans had been cleansed. He thought, however, that it was 
hardly possible to say precisely that the fungus in question was the 
actual cause of the disease, unless it were practically tested whether 
the introduction of it into the human system was sufficient to produce 
the disease. These minute fungi were so abundant everywhere, that 
the mere presence of them where they were found did not of necessity 
show them to be the cause of the disease, but only perhaps that they 
had there found a suitable material in which to propagate themselves. 
Allusion had been made to Dr. Klein’s discovery of these fungi, but 
he believed that although Dr. Klein had thought at one time that 
he had so discovered them, he had since seen reasons for modifying 
his opinion, and now was under the impression that the peculiar fine 
fibrilla) which he had observed were those of fibrine separated from 
the general structure, and were, in fact, not fungi at all. Dr. Klein, 
therefore, had given up this particular fungus, but whilst doing so he 
did not by any means give up the idea that the disease was due to a 
fungus, aud although he had not yet demonstrated its presence in the 
human subject, he believed that he had shown it in the pig. 
Dr. Bartlett said he had not in any way attempted to do more 
than identify the existence of the fungus in the water, and afterwards 
in the patients. 
The Chairman inquired if the people at the farms had suffered in 
