March 11,1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
723 
glad to hear of, as it offered a complete demonstra¬ 
tion, by a different process, of the facts which he was 
wishing to prove. The gentleman I refer to, Dr. 
Brittan, at a time when cholera was prevalent, em¬ 
ployed a man to blow with a pair of bellows for 
several hours in a room in a low dirty neighbour¬ 
hood. The bellows were connected with a siphon, 
and the bend of the siphon was immersed in a freez¬ 
ing mixture. The air had moisture in it, which was 
condensed as it passed through the cold tube, and 
carried down with it the floating particles contained 
in the air. Dr. Brittan sent me a specimen of this 
to examine, and the fluid was quite brown with the 
quantity of sporules of fungi which it contained. 
Yet this was simply the natural moisture of the air 
condensed. To give another illustration. About 
the same time my friend Mr. John Marshall was led 
to pay a great deal of attention to the prevalence of 
smut and rust in wheat. It was a year after a very 
bad season, when there had been a great deal of un¬ 
healthiness in the wheat grains, and there was a 
large quantity of bad bread sold, especially among 
the poorer classes. It was at a time when there was 
an epidemic of cholera, and there was a notion that 
this disease was due to the presence of these germs 
of fungi. Mr. Marshall formed the idea that the pre¬ 
sence of these germs in the evacuations was simply 
due to the patients having eaten bad bread, and he 
examined through the microscope a great many spe¬ 
cimens of tliis inferior bread. He found that all the 
inferior bakers were selling bread that contained a 
quantity of these sporules of fungi. Then he got a 
number of samples of flour, and found that whilst 
the inferior flour contained an enormous quantity, 
even the best flour, with a very few exceptions, con- 
tamed some. Then he traced it further back to 
the wheat grains. He got a number of samples 
from different dealers, and found that almost every 
gram had entangled amongst the hairs at the point 
of the gram two or three or more sporules of fungi. 
That shows the universality of them diffusion, and it 
added great strength to an opinion I had been pre¬ 
viously led to entertain, that the prevalence of these 
diseases in particular years depends upon the gene¬ 
ral unhealthy condition of the grain, predisposing it 
to decomposition; and that the sporules alighting 
upon a healthy surface will not grow, whilst again, 
alighting upon a grain already unhealthy, the fluids 
of which are prone to decomposition, the sporules 
find an appropriate bed, and begin to vegetate, and 
then their increase spoils the whole grain very ra¬ 
pidly. Take again the case of a disease that many 
of you have heard a great deal about—diphtheria. 
One of the first signs of diphtheria is almost invariably 
the presence of the diphtheritic crust, as it is called, 
upon the fauces; and that diphtheritic crust, when 
examined with the microscope, is found to be almost 
entirely a fungous growth. But I do not believe at 
all that the fungous growth is the origin or essence 
of the disease. It is simply this, that there is a pe¬ 
culiar unhealthy secretion thrown out, which be¬ 
comes the nidus, the bed for the development of 
these fungous germs, which are constantly floating 
about. In the same way with the vine disease and 
the potato disease. I do not believe in either case 
that the fungus is the first cause of the disease, but 
that in both instances it is a predisposition to an un¬ 
healthy condition of the plant, in consequence of bad 
cultivation, forcing cultivation especially, which gives 
to the fungus its power of development. Tliis pecu¬ 
liar power that fungi have of decomposing organic 
substances is again manifested in the phenomena 
of ordinary fermentation. Ordinary yeast, which is 
a substance familiar to you all, is a mass of vegetation. 
This discovery was made about twenty-five years ago, 
I think; and I had the pleasure of being the first 
to satisfy Professor Liebig, (who was at that time in 
England, and who scouted the idea that fungi had 
anything to do with vegetation,) that these were un¬ 
questionably organic bodies, and thus led him to be 
more tolerant in his views and in liis expressions 
with regard to those who maintained, as is now uni¬ 
versally admitted, that it is the presence of these 
fungi, and their peculiar power of inducing decom¬ 
position, which is really the cause of fermentation. 
If you can shut out these fungi, for example, in the 
treatment of an abscess communicating with the 
air, or of a compound fracture, (and tliis is one of the 
greatest improvements of modern surgery,)—if you 
can shut out these, by the use of carbolic acid or 
other means ; if you can filter the air of these 
germs of fungi, and protect the cavity of the abscess 
or the compound fracture, like an entirely internal 
cavity, instead of allowing it to communicate with 
the air,—you then promote very considerably indeed 
the patient’s welfare, and give him a very much 
better chance of recovery. You thus see how one 
thing leads on to another, and how important im¬ 
provements in medical practice arise out of a know¬ 
ledge of the conditions of these low forms of vegetation. 
Yeast is composed of a mass of cells which, 
during the process of fermentation, grow from single 
cells, putting out little buds, until a single cell grows 
to four, five or six. By the time that they have 
formed these little groups of five or six cells, the fer¬ 
mentation has advanced sufficiently far, and it is 
stopped; but, if it were allowed to go on, it would 
then put forth a fructification, and become a regular 
well-known form of fungus, very much like that 
wliicli you find in old vinegar. Again : there are 
other forms of fungi which grow in the silkworm, 
and constitute one form of silkworm disease, which 
has been extremely fatal in silk-growing countries; 
in fact, it is said that it has produced losses to the 
extent of thirty or forty millions sterling, and yet 
all tliis arises from a minute fungus, which is deve¬ 
loped in the interior of the body of the animal. 
I have dwelt upon this subject of the peculiarity 
of Fungi in relation to the general doctrine of the 
distinction between animal and vegetable life, be¬ 
cause it is a subject of great interest at the present 
time, and has an important relation to those duties 
of medical men with which you are likely to become 
very familiar. 
I return now to the point from which we started, 
the active motion that we find hi many of the lower 
Plants. Tliis motion you may see extremely well if 
you happen to be anywhere on the seacoast, and 
take up what you find growing there on the shore, 
those long, green seaweeds called Ulvcc; some of 
them narrowed very much like blades of grass, and 
some having large, extended surfaces. In the sum¬ 
mer time } r ou will be almost sure to find some of 
these white at the ends and over a very considerable 
portion of the edge, perhaps for a third of its length. 
That white portion is the part of the frond which has 
discharged its zoospores. All that white portion 
was once green. The green cells were then filled 
with green matter congregated into little masses, 
and by the rupture of the cell tlie} r escaped in the 
