152 FOOTNOTES FROM 



habit would seem rather to indicate affinity with the 

 fungi than with the algae. 



The accounts of blood -prodigies found in ancient his- 

 tory, are matched by well-authenticated phenomena which 

 have presented themselves within the memory of many 

 now living. So late as the beginning of this century, 

 the excessive growth of red algae on the surface of the 

 Elbe made that river for several days seem to run blood; 

 while shortly afterwards some portions of the Nile 

 reddened in the same way, and remained blood-like and 

 putrid for many months. In Silliman's North American 

 Journal, there appeared several years ago, a description 

 of an extraordinary fountain of blood discovered in 

 South America. A person approaching the grotto from 

 which the waters flowed observed a disagreeable odour, 

 and when it was reached, he saw several pools of the 

 blood in a state of coagulation. Dogs ate it eagerly. The 

 late Don Raphael Osijo undertook to send some bottles of 

 this singular liquid rivalling the famous blood of St. Jan- 

 uarius- to London for analysis, but it corrupted within 

 twenty-four hours, bursting the bottles. Before the potato- 

 blight broke out in 1 846, red mould spots appeared on wet 

 linen surfaces exposed to the airinbleaching-greens, as well 

 as on household linens kept in damp places in Ireland. In 

 September 1848, Dr. Eckard, of Berlin, while attending 

 a cholera patient, observed the same appearance on a 

 plate of potatoes which had been placed in a cupboard 

 of the patient's house. The potatoes were transmitted 

 for examination to Ehrenberg, who found the colouring 

 matter to consist of extremely minute algae, or animalcules 

 as he called them, somewhat allied to the Palmella pro- 



