1 905-1906.] The " Water-Flea " Scare in our City. 275 



now and again discovered in cisterns. Thirsty rats and mice 

 at times find there a watery grave, and dead birds have been 

 got in the bottom of Edinburgh cisterns. If our domestic 

 water-supply, therefore, — no longer, it is to be hoped, inter- 

 mittent and insufficient, — cannot now be drawn in every case 

 direct from the street mains, it is very important that all 

 cisterns in which that supply is stored should be so placed 

 and constructed as to be easily accessible.^ And it is just as 

 important that the Water Trust should do their part, and see 

 to it that our drinking-water, on the purity of which the 

 health of the citizens so largely depends, is protected through- 

 out its way to our homes from all contaminating influences. 



[A day or two after the above paper was read to the 

 Society, the Eeport of Dr Williamson, Chief Sanitary Inspector 

 of the city, was issued. This Eeport embodies a communica- 

 tion on the purely zoological aspect of the subject from Dr 

 Traquair, who, again, called in the services of Mr William 

 Evans for purposes of identification. As a result, the insects 

 in question are authoritatively declared to be spring-tails ; and 

 these are stated to have been found in about 30 per cent of 

 the ball-hydrant boxes examined. It is also said to have been 

 demonstrated that the liquid contents of these hydrant boxes 

 could, in a few seconds, be transferred to the house cisterns by 

 a simple increase of pressure. Mr Evans identified the 

 particular species of Collembola found in the hydrants or in 

 the cisterns as being three in number : Isotoma fimetm-ia, 

 TuUb., /. minuta, Tullb., and Templetonia nitida (Tempi.), — 

 the first being by far the most numerous, and none of them 

 being in any sense aquatic. It is added, however, that other 



' The following passage from the Sanitary Inspector's last Annual Report gives 

 Bome idea of the number of cases in which the domestic water-supply is still 

 stored within the dwelling, and points out at the same time the undesirable con- 

 dition of many of these sources of supply: "Over 13,000 cisterns have been 

 examined ; and that more than 1500 of these have been found by the Inspectors 

 in a dirty condition is an evidence of an absence of ordinary precautionary care 

 on the part of so many persons in regard to this very important matter. Indeed, 

 the Inspectors specially charged with this work report that many householders 

 are unaware where cisterns are situated ; and in such cases, as may be supposed, 

 the conditions found present are frequently far from satisfactory." — ' Annual 

 Report of the Sanitary and Markets Departments of the City of Edinburgh, for 

 the Year 1905,' by A, Maxwell Williamson, M.D., B.Sc, pp. 3, 4. 



