270 DR. LANKESTER, ON FUNGI IN WATER. 



On the presence (?/* Microscopic Fungi m Water deleterious 

 to Health. By Edwin Lankester, M.D., F.R.S. 



Not one of the least important services rendered by the micro- 

 scope, is the facility with which the presence of organic matters, 

 especially when living, can be detected by its agency in posi- 

 tions where chemical analysis fails to recognise such compounds at 

 all. This is remarkably the case with the lower forms of animal 

 and vegetable life which inhabit fresh, mineral, and marine 

 waters. Some of the animals, as, for instance, the jelly-fishes, 

 which are large enough to be seen by the naked eye, and even 

 to present creatures of formidable dimensions, are scarcely 

 recognisable by chemical analysis in the water in which they 

 have existed. Such facts as these seem to indicate that the 

 microscope may be successfully employed in investigating waters 

 which may be suspected of containing deleterious matters, or of 

 determining the presence of agents injurious to health. It is 

 true that our knowledge of the forms of microscopic life which 

 may be injurious to health is very limited, but sufficient is known 

 to stimulate further inquiry, and to prompt further eftbrts to 

 identify special organic forms with the unfitness of water for 

 dietetical purposes. On this ground I have thought the follow- 

 ing notes not unworthy of record. 



In the autumn of 1854, I was requested to examine the well- 

 waters in the parish of St. James's, Westminster, as some of 

 them, not without reason, as it subsequently turned out, had been 

 suspected of communicating, or predisposing those who took them 

 to, attacks of cholera. At the time 1 examined them (October, 

 1854) the majority of these waters presented no organic peculiari- 

 ties. One of them, however, that in Broad Street, Golden Square, 

 and which was afterwards proved to have been remarkably 

 connected with the great outbreak of cholera in the parish of St. 

 James's, in September 1854, presented, after standing a little 

 time, a cloudiness visible to the naked eye. On examining a few 

 drops of this water with a \ inch object glass, the cloudiness was 

 seen to be produced by me flocculent mycelium of a fungus 

 (PI. XIV., fig. 16). On one occasion, whilst examining this myce- 

 lium, I observed a distinct passage of small oval bodies, of vary- 

 ing size, which passed on from one branch to another, and 

 presented an appearance closely resembling the movement of the 

 blood globules in the capillary vessels (fig. 17). This movement 

 continued for several minutes. Although I looked for this move- 

 ment again several times, I was never able to observe it, and 

 the fungus shortly after this time was not developed in the water. 



T'his fungus produced a sporidium (fig. 18), which was at 

 first filled with closely-packed spores ; after a little time they 



