"Spores and other vegetable cells are constantly present in atmospheric dust, and usually occur in considerable numbers; the majority of them are living, and capable of growth and development. The amount of them present in the air appears to be independent of conditions of velocity and direction of the wind, and their number is not diminished by moisture.
"No connection can be traced between the numbers of bacteria, spores, &c., present in the air, and the occurrence of diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, ague, or dengue, nor between the presence or abundance of any special form or forms of cells, and the prevalence of any of these diseases.
"The amount of inorganic and amorphous particles and other débris suspended in the atmosphere is directly dependent on conditions of moisture and velocity of wind."
This report is accompanied by fourteen large and well-executed plates, each containing hundreds of figures of organic bodies collected from the air between February and September. It is valuable both for its evidence as to the number and character of the spores in the air, and also for the tables showing the relation between five forms of disease, and their fluctuations, as compared with the amount of spores floating in the atmosphere.
We are fain to believe that we have represented the influence of fungi on man as far as evidence seems to warrant. The presence of forms of mould in some of their incipient conditions in different diseased parts of the human body, externally and internally, may be admitted without the assumption that they are in any manner the cause of the diseased tissues, except in such cases as we have indicated. Hospital gangrene may be alluded to in this connection, and it is possible that it may be due to some fungus allied to the crimson spots (blood rain) which occur on decayed vegetation and meat in an incipient stage of decomposition. This fungus was at one time regarded as an algal, at another as animal; but it is much more probable that it is a low condition of some common mould. The readiness with which the spores of fungi floating in the atmosphere adhere to and establish themselves on all putrid or corrupt substances is manifest in the experience of all who have had to do with the dressing of wounds, and in this case it is a matter of the greatest importance that, as much as possible, atmospherical contact should be avoided.