Recently a case occurred at the Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh which was somewhat novel. The assistant to the botanical professor was preparing for demonstration some dried specimens of a large puff-ball, filled with the dust-like spores, which he accidentally inhaled, and was for some time confined to his room under medical attendance from the irritation they caused. This would seem to prove that the spores of some fungi are liable, when inhaled in large quantities, to derange the system and become dangerous; but under usual and natural conditions such spores are not likely to be present in the atmosphere in sufficient quantity to cause inconvenience. In the autumn a very large number of basidiospores must be present in the atmosphere of woods, and yet there is no reason to believe that it is more unhealthy to breathe the atmosphere of a wood in September or October than in January or May. Dreadful effects are said to be produced by a species of black rust which attacks the large South of Europe reed, _Arundo donax_. This is in all probability the same species with that which attacks _Arundo phragmitis_ in this country, the spores of which produce violent headaches and other disorders amongst the labourers who cut the reeds for thatching. M. Michel states that the spores from the parasite on _Arundo donax_, either inhaled or injected, produce violent papular eruption on the face, attended with great swelling, and a variety of alarming symptoms which it is unnecessary to particularize, in various parts of the body.[K] Perhaps if _Sarcina_ should ultimately prove to be a fungus, it may be added to the list of those which aggravate, if they are not the primary cause of, disease in the human subject.
II. What influences can be attributed to fungi upon animals other than man? Clearly instinct preserves animals from many dangers. It may be presumed that under ordinary circumstances there is not much fear of a cow or a sheep poisoning itself in a pasture or a wood. But under extraordinary circumstances it is not only possible, but very probable, that injuries may occur. For instance, it is well known that not only rye and wheat, but also many of the grasses, are liable to infection from a peculiar form of fungus called "ergot." In certain seasons this ergot is much more common than others, and the belief is strong in those who ought to know something of the subject from experience, viz., farmers and graziers, that in such seasons it is not uncommon for cattle to slip their young through feeding on ergotized grass. Then, again, it is fairly open to inquiry whether, in years when "red rust" and "mildew" are more than usually plentiful on grasses, these may not be to a certain extent injurious. Without attempting to associate the cattle plague in any way with fungi on grass, it is nevertheless a most remarkable coincidence that the year in which the cattle disease was most prevalent in this country was one in which there was--at least in some districts--more "red rust" on grasses than we ever remember to have seen before or since; the clothes of a person walking through the rusty field soon became orange-coloured from the abundance of spores. Graziers on this point again seem to be generally agreed, that they do not think "red rust" has been proved to be injurious to cattle. The direct influence of fungi on quadrupeds, birds, reptilia, &c., seems to be infinitesimally small.