
NOTICES OF MEETINGS. 37 


minute forms of vegetation were capable of doing, from year to year, was greater 
than all the armies and navies of the world could accomplish even if they were 
joined together. Their power of destruction was great, but they were of vast 
service to mankind when properly used, and we might take it that the greatest 
part of the income of the Government was derived from the cultivation of some of 
the minute fungi. After describing certain fungoid diseases peculiar to insects, the 
essayist said that certain species attacked the human subject. These might be 
divided into two classes, one which attacked the hair of the scalp, and the 
other the body. The first, which was known in Edinburgh as avus, was a 
peculiar straw-coloured eruption on the hair of the scalp. It was exceedingly 
difficult to free a person from it. That fungus, which was known as Achorion 
Schonleinii, was sometimes found upon mice, and had been traced from the 
mouse to the human subject. The cat ate the mouse, the lady fondled the cat, 
and thereby got the fungus upon her skin. It had been clearly shown by in- 
vestigation to be so in at least one instance, where that peculiar kind of fungus 
was transmitted to a whole family through the cat. Another fungus which 
affected the hair of the scalp was the ringworm ( 7yichophyton tonsurans ). 
Another kind of fungus, the Aficrosporon mentagrophytes, attacked the hair, 
multiplied rapidly, and broke it up by the roots. Those kinds of fungi acted 
much more seriously on the human subject in India than they did in this coun- 
try. One species of fungus produced baldness without causing irritation, though 
there were, of course, other causes of baldness besides the presence of a parasite, 
After referring to other forms of fungi, one of which manifests itself under the 
nails of the human subject, while another has been observed in India, where it 
attacks bones and sometimes necessitates amputation. Some minute forms of 
vegetation attacked wood, and produced what was popularly called “ dry rot,” 
while others formed the mildew that caused so much loss by damaging the grey 
cloth which Manchester merchants sent to India and other places. The fungus 
in question converted the cloth into tinder by a peculiar action, in which the 
whole fabric became a complete pulp by the simple interlacing of millions upon 
millions of minute sporules. If we were to take the grape and squeeze its juice 
into a vessel in such a way as to prevent it from coming in contact with the 
sporules which were continually flying about in the air, wine would not be pro- 
duced. The sporules of the mycoderma vini, which helped to produce wine, 
stuck to the skin of the grape; therefore in making wine the grapes were first 
pressed and then the skins were thrown in among the juice, fermentation being 
caused thereby. 
At the close of the paper, Mr. John Barrow, F.R.M.S., thade a few remarks 
to the effect that having on a previous occasion had ample opportunity of study- 
ing Trichophyton tonsurans, he had to confess that his observations were entirely 
different from the diagrams Mr. Thomson had put before them. Had the 
reader ever seen the spores so plainly as shown in the diagrams? as he had 
never been able to do so. 
Mr. Thomson, in his reply, said that if there was any error in the diagrams, it 
was not his fault, as he had carefully reproduced them from standard works upon 
the subject, but from his own way of thinking he regarded them as accurate, 
He had several slides illustrating the fungus in question, and should be happy 
to show them at the close of the evening. This was attempted, but the exhi- 
bition of the spores was not successful, owing, perhaps, in a great measure, to 
the sections being too thick. 
MANCHESTER MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.—The following is an 
abstract of the paper read at the November meeting upon Cysticercus cellulose : 
Mr. John Smith, M.R.C.S., commenced by premising for the information of 
any of the members not conversant with the subject that Cysticercus, as well as 
its mature relation Tzenia, was pretty generally to be found amongst animals ; 
