MICRO-FUNGI: WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. T5 

MICRO-FUNGI: WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND 
THEM. 
F there be any one branch of botanical study more likely than 
another to attract the special attention of the student of micro- 
scopy, it is the study of the minute fungi. Wherever his home 
may be, they come around him from month to month on all sorts 
of decaying or dead organisms, animal and vegetable. They float 
in the ponds and ditches, and their invisible spores are carried 
through the atmosphere in every possible direction, even along our 
streets and into our dwellings, especially our cellars. Most of 
these decompose for want of the required nidus, but countless 
thousands are developed into active vitality, and bring into exist- 
ence most beautiful organisms. Now, in this dead time of winter, 
we have them in all damp places around our homes—often on the 
bread we eat and in the water we drink—on our cheese ; and if we. 
eat the tinned meats our cousins send us from Australia, we may 
find the fungus there in the shape of a hateful white patch. If we 
scan with careful eye our window panes, we may find house flies 
who have sought out quiet corners where they might die, and there 
upon their dead remains we find a mass of minute white threads, 
which are the filaments of a well-known and interesting fungus. 
Amongst what may be called the domestic fungi, we have that still 
worse family pest the ring-worm—no worm, or any other animal, 
but a dona fide plant, well known and identified. A scientific friend 
of mine suffered some years ago from the infection of this so-called 
worm in his beard. He caught and tested the structure of the 
unwelcome visitor, and sent me specimens of its organism, including 
the spores. My friend Mr. Tozer, the head of the fire department 
of our Manchester Corporation, a year or two ago sent me speci- 
mens of the ring-worm, which had got upon many of his horses, 
and was breaking up the hairs into strange fractions of diverging 
fibres. Doubtless many of the diseases we suffer from have their 
origin in fungoid life, as yet only suspected, but may some day be 
known and eradicated. Already has science done much in this 
direction, but a wide field still remains to be investigated. ‘The 
Sarcina ventricult, a so-called fungus when I began microscopic 
study, but now looked upon as a Confervoid Alga, has played sad 
havoc with the human stomach. It is but recently that this little 
vegetable monster has been known, and even now it is a difficulty 
and a puzzle to the medical student. So during all the centuries 
of man’s existence it has been doing its deadly work in the dark, 
disordering his vital functions and doubtless abbreviating his span 
of life. 

