522 
GEORGE FLEMING. 
gusting, fetid powder, consisting of minute balls, four millions of 
which may exist in a single grain. The disease which attacks rye 
and other grain, called a Ergot ” or u Cock’s-spur,” is produced 
by a like minute fungus—the Syoermcedia clavus ; that attacking 
the potato—the Botrytis infestus ; that destroying the different 
species of Allium, as the onion— Botrytis destructor ; and many 
other destroying fungi, whose existence in plants can only be real¬ 
ized by their ravages, and their presence by means of the micro¬ 
scope, are known to those who have made them a special study. 
The lowest, as well as the highest animals, are similarly the 
victims of these almost impalpable organisms. There is not a 
creature, probably, which may not afford scope for their baneful 
action. The disease called “ Muscardine,” in the silkworm, is pro¬ 
duced by the “ balsoma ” or Botrytis Bassiana , and several species 
of caterpillars are affected in the same way ; indeed, some of these 
fungi of caterpillars completely transform the bodies of these 
into their own substance. Then we have the fungi which grow 
upon or within the bodies of man and wild and domesticated ani¬ 
mals, and cause troublesome, very often serious, and only too fre¬ 
quently fatal disorders. The wonderful revelations which have 
been made by means of the microscope, lead us to believe that 
those diseases which are included in the group designated 
“ zymotic,” owe their production to vegetable germs; and other 
maladies not comprised in this class have already been discovered 
to be due to these microphytes—for instance, anthrax, tubercu¬ 
losis, swine-plague, rabies, fowl-cholera, leprosy, etc. 
Yearly the list of diseases evidently due to microbes , or 
“ germs ”—as they are commonly designated—is added to ; and 
whether these germs consist of simple forms, such as special mi¬ 
crococci or pacilli , or more complex organisms, yet by culture 
and inoculation-experiments their part in the pathogenesis of cer¬ 
tain maladies, can be no longer doubted. 
Whether these fungi invade plants or animals—whether they 
attack the simplest or the most complex organizations—the ten¬ 
dency of their action is always the same—degeneration and disin¬ 
tegration. 
The object of this paper is to bring to notice another addition 
