70 REPORT 1851. 



the fish increased in such quantities as was not before known on any previous 

 year, so " that Neptune, instead of Ceres, supplied food" to the country. 

 About the beginning of June there appeared on vegetation a form of ru- 

 higo, a rusty withered appearance ; the same disease had occurred the year 

 before, which had also been very wet, although in a less degree. This disease 

 increased in spite of all prudential care, beginning with the mulberry and 

 attacking afterwards the beans very fiercely. This began in low -putrid 

 places, but it afterwards made its way into elevated situations. He says, 

 "Luctuosum sane ac deplorandum spectaculum omnium oculis fuit, campos 

 circumquaque non virentes, sed atratos ac fuliginosos intueri. Anno praece- 

 dente, rubro colore, hoc anno non creta sed cdrbone notando." " It was a 

 melancholy sight and painful to every one to look on the fields, which, instead 

 of being green and healthy, were everywhere black and sooty. The former 

 year might be marked red, but this year must be marked, not with white, but 

 black.". ..." The very animals returned the food which they had eaten, it was 

 so nauseous .... the sheep and the silk-worms perished .... the bees went 

 timidly to work with their honey-making .... the waters became corrupt and 

 fevers attacked the inhabitants, chiefly the country people, such as lived in 

 the wet lands." 



If the rain falls on land where plants are decomposing it will not be fit for 

 domestic use, unless passed through strata deep enough to clear it ; and water 

 of this kind, although not so bad as that described at Modena, will be found 

 more or less to make up rivers which surface-drain rich lands. This water 

 is always liable to deposit a large amount of green matter, and often in great 

 quantities, with abundant animalcules. One may even tell this kind of 

 water by burning the residuum from boiling ; if it has a vegetable odour, it 

 will after a time deposit vegetation and animalcules interspersed ; if it has 

 an animal odour, having much nitrogen, the animalcules will be of a different 

 kind; if it has a peaty odour only, having no albumen, it will produce little 

 or no deposit. It becomes therefore a matter of great importance, when 

 examining waters for use, to find v/hat becomes of them after standing awhile. 

 To say how much organic matter is in them is not enough, but it is import- 

 ant to know its quality. This difference of quality is the most important 

 thing to know ; suppose a specimen having merely humus in solution or 

 crenic acid, an analysis would put it in a very inferior condition to a specimen 

 of water having organic matter from rich fields, which water had never passed 

 through the soil, or water which had passed by towns and had in it matter from 

 the town sewers. The first would be shown by mere chemical analysis to be 

 the worst, having a larger quantity of organic matter ; the result by standing 

 would show the superiority. Water may pass by towns, and after standing 

 a little be very clear ; if kept still longer and in a suitable place, it will de- 

 posit its impurities in an organized state; it may be filtered again, and again 

 deposit impurities. The matter is in solution ; and very clear river and other 

 water is often found in this condition. It is therefore most important, as an 

 element in the appreciation of water, to find the amount of organizable 

 matter in it. 



The water from rivers which have run far is apt to contain salts of various 

 kinds, besides those contributing to hardness, and in this they seem to agree 

 with water from cultivated land. This would agree also with the deep 

 drain-water from cultivated land, so far as inorganic salts are concerned. If 

 water contains lime as a carbonate, the hardness and the amount of lime 

 ought to be the same. This occurs at the sources of the Thames, where, in 

 two instances, the hardness was rather greater than the whole amount of in- 

 organic matter. This is to be accounted for by the excess of carbonic acid 



