12 Objects Seen in Cholera Evacuations. [part i. 



No. II. — A few drops of the evacuation-sediment only. 

 No. III. — A slice of the same plantain as in No. I. 



The apparatus had been made as clean as possible previous to this, rinsed out 

 with spirit immediately before depositing these glasses on the stand beneath the 

 bell-glass, and the greatest care taken to avoid foreign matter getting at the 

 preparations before placing them there. The air within was renewed morning and 

 evening ; the weather was warm the whole time, the average day temperature of the 

 room being about 90° Fahr. 



On the fourth day a mould was seen to appear on the two slices of fruit, 

 quite as marked on the clean plantain as on the other, but no change was visible 

 in the watch-glass containing the evacuation only. This condition lasted a fortnight, 

 the crop of fungus gradually increasing in the two former, and no change could be 

 observed in the latter. During the third week, the fungus not having made any 

 progress, and the liquid in the watch-glass No, II. becoming rather less, from 

 evaporation, the apparatus was opened on the twenty-fourth day, and the result 

 carefully examined forthwith. 



The two pieces of fruit were covered with a thick coating of a black-and-yellow 

 coloured fungus, both colours appearing in the two preparations; the yellow prevailing 

 in the tainted slice, and the black on the other ; the difference being merely in the 

 proportion, for tufts of each colour appeared here and there over the surface. These 

 were found under the microscope to be aspergillus (Plate VI, Fig. xix, 1) and penicilliuTn 

 (xix, 2). Precisely the same fungus and the same species grew on glycerine, on starch-paste, 

 and on pieces of dirty cork in various parts of the room. In the other watch-glass, how- 

 ever, containing the evacuation only, a very different appearance was observed. The 

 preparation had become partly dry, and presented a filmy appearance. On placing the 

 watch-glass on the stage of the microscope, a great quantity of spherical bodies were 

 seen with granular contents, the average size being about that of a white blood- 

 corpuscle, but the size varied considerably, among which long delicate mycelical 

 filaments ramified (Fig. xix, 3) ; from this network thin fertile threads arose, tipped 

 in most instances with exceedingly delicate vesicles (xix, 4), which appearance at 

 first was taken for the dewdrop aspect so common to mycelium ; others were seen of 

 a much larger size. On watching them closely, all the bodies were seen to roll round 

 and round, like a volvox. Elongated (spore-like) bodies were distinctly visible within 

 each delicate capsule, unless very small (xix, 5), and seemed to move irrespective of 

 the capsule (or sporangium) : of this, however, I am not certain. They appeared 

 white by reflected light, and yellowish-green by transmitted light. The movement 

 appeared to me to be due to currents of air in the room, each little sphere twirling 

 round rapidly in one direction for ten or twenty turns, then as rapidly twirling in 

 the opposite way. The course of the spinning vesicle was not always horizontal, but 

 varied until it was nearly vertical to the filament on which it was perched, but never 



