108 Dr. Lankester on Plants and Animals 



In the specimens I brought with me from Harrowgate I 

 could not find the Conferva nivea, but in Hooker's ' British 

 Flora' it is stated to have been found at this place. 



All the substances which have been enumerated have been 

 referred to very different sources for their origin. Thus An- 

 glada supposed glairine to be of chemical origin, whilst others 

 referred it to the vegetable kingdom, and a third class of ob- 

 servers have referred a similar compound to the animal king- 

 dom, calling it zoogene, &c. The different states, in which 

 these substances are presented by nature, would undoubtedly 

 add to these various conclusions. I am not however aware 

 that those who have referred this substance to the animal 

 kingdom have obsers^ed living animals in the waters from 

 which it has been taken. Dr. Daubeny remarks in a note, 

 that Turpin had found in the substance called Baregine the 

 remains of Infusoria ; but no writer that I am aware has re- 

 corded the fact of the existence of living animals in waters 

 impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen. 



I have however met with several species of animalcules in 

 these waters, two of which I have more particularly examined, 

 and will now describe. In an analysis of the waters of Askern, 

 pubhshed in 1817, the author observes, "Nearly allied to the 

 vegetable kingdom is a singular substance found in a pond at 

 the south corner of the pool. This substance is a powder of 

 a pink or rose colour, which forais a thin covering on the 

 sand and mud at the bottom of the pond." — [Bi'ewerton.) 



On reading this, I immediately had recourse to the spot, 

 and found the substance lying on the mud of the ditches near 

 Askern, which are strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hy- 

 drogen. I at first thought it to be of vegetable origin, and 

 sent some to Mr. Berkeley for the pui-pose of ascertaining his 

 opinion. From the state in which I sent it he supposed it 

 might be a species of Protococcus, at the same time putting 

 to me the query whether it might not be of animal origin. 

 At that time I had seen nothing to lead me to suspect this, 

 unless it might have been the excretion or ova of a beau- 

 tiful rotiferous animalcule resembling the Philodina roseola 

 of Ehrenberg, which is very abundant in the waters of the 

 pool at Askern. After having kept some specimens of the 

 red substance in water exposed to the air, I obsen'cd the 

 water one morning of a deep rose colour, and on examining 

 it found it to contain an immense number of very minute ani- 

 malcules. I now had a clue to the origin of the red substance, 

 and from subsequent examinations found that the red colour 

 of the water and the deposits depended on this animalcule ; in 



