16 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 
I remember a certain shoemaker in Sheffield, who some thirty 
years ago was a sufferer from this pest unknowingly for a consider- 
able period, and who was greatly reduced from being a very stout 
man to pitiful thinness, when a microscopist, and a personal friend, 
examined the fluid the shoemaker vomited, in which he at once 
detected the Sarcina, and he told the sufferer that he had got the 
Sarcina ventriculi in his stomach. ‘The poor fellow was horrified, 
thinking that it must be some huge monster. Explanation followed, 
and the proper medicine soon destroyed the unwelcome guest. 
From what I have said it will be seen that the study of the minute 
fungi is not only a pleasant occupation and a matter of general 
scientific interest, but it is in a certain sense a duty we are bound 
to fulfil in our own interest, and for our own personal protection 
and the public good. Before leaving this department of study let 
me refer to the Ergot of Rye, a minute fungus of the genus 
Claviceps. This, taken in household bread, has been known to 
produce the most fearful results, upon the details of which it is not 
desirable that I should dwell. It is not for the medical student, but 
rather for what may be called the botanical student that I write, 
that I may aid him in those studies which will be to him a pleasure 
rather than a profession. About this time of the year, with the 
prospect of spring before him, the student will be thinking of the 
leaf fungi, which are not yet nor can they come for some two or 
three months ; but numerous others are to be found in woods and 
meadows, and elsewhere in places innumerable. I hope to have 
an opportunity next month of calling the attention of the student 
to some of these. In the meantime, I may not inappropriately 
conclude by quoting the well-known inscription on the tomb of 
Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London—“ $7 
monumentum requiris circumspice, for truly monuments of nature’s 
handywork are all around him. 
In concluding this paper for January, it may be well to allude 
more specifically to some of the domestic pests which are referred 
to above. The too-common one on bread is known as Ascophora 
mucedo, and will be familiar to every student of microscopy. ‘This 
is the only species we have of that genus. Then we have the 
Mucors, of which many species are well known. Mucor mucedo on 
fruit, preserves, etc.; JZ. clavatus on decayed fruit, as also Mucor 
amethysteus, which is the especial fungus of rotting pears. Then 
we have Mucor caninus on the ejectamenta of cats and dogs, and 
numerous others, which I must leave to another occasion, the 
space at my command being fully occupied. 
THOMAS BRITTAIN. 


