Bread made from rye so infested is known to produce grave consequences, soon to become fatal if not detected in time. The disease is termed ergotism, and gangrene of the extremities takes place among people of the north of France and Russia, who consume bread made from rye flour. Ergot of maize will also cause similar diseases. Fowls and other animals fed upon this cereal become in a short time poisoned, and the cause of death is not rightly suspected. There is another fungus belonging to the same group of Ascomycetes, known as _Eurotium repens_, which appears upon leather when left in a damp place, and also upon vegetable or animal substances if badly preserved, and gradually destroys it. This mould is of a darkish green colour. The minute spores display themselves as rows of beads when fully ripe on the erect mycelium. _Aspergillus glaucus_ represents the white exogenous spores of the sphacelium of the ergot of rye; and those subsequently produced in the yellow balls correspond with the asci developed in sclerotis, the endogenous species. Many of the parasitic species belonging to the genera _Erysiphe_, _Sphæria_, _Sordaria_, _Penicillium_, &c., have a similar mode of propagation, and affect a large number of plants. Parasitic Fungi of Men and Animals. In the microscopical examinations especially given to the elucidation of parasitic diseases of the skin, previously referred to, I discovered more varieties of spores and filaments of certain cryptogamic plants associated with a larger number of specific forms of fungi than any previous observer. I did not, however, feel justified in concluding, with Küchenmeister, Schœnlein, and Robin, that these fungoid growths were the primary cause of the diseases referred to. Indeed, the foremost dermatologists of the period utterly refused to entertain the specific germ theory of the German investigators. Nevertheless, I contended, “the universality of their distribution is in itself a fact of very considerable importance, and one pointing to the belief that they are scavengers ever ready to fasten on decaying matter, and, on finding a suitable soil, spread out their invisible filaments in every direction in so persistent a manner as to arrest growth and overwhelm the plant in destruction.”[53] Special forms of fungi are given in Plate I., Nos. 10-14, and those of the ascomycetes in Nos. 17-21. [Illustration: Fig. 277.--Healthy fresh Yeast, from a large Brewery, in an active stage of formation, × 400.]