EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 489 
It is interesting to hear that a specimen of Scutigera coleoptrata, a 
South Kuropean centipede, was recently captured at Colchester. This is 
the second time that its occurrence in Great Britain has been recorded. 
The first time it was introduced among a quantity of old rags into a paper- 
mill near Aberdeen, where, being protected by heat, it bred and has become 
established. 
A FISH discovered in the stomach of a Cachalot by the Prince of 
Monaco during one of his expeditions has been determined as indis- 
tinguishable from the common Fel, and this points with great emphasis 
to the fact that this form, whose habits are so obscure, must at times take 
to the open sea. 
THE nature of the water supply being of immense importance to the 
welfare of humanity, especially of that portion living in communities, it 
may be well to refer toa paper written by Mr. Geo. W. Rafter, “ On Some 
Recent Advances in Water Analysis and the Use of the Microscope for 
the Detection of Sewage,” though published as long ago as 1898 in the 
‘American Monthly Microscopical Journal,’ and which was read before 
the Buffalo, N. Y., Microscopical Club :— 
The complete details of these various studies are too extensive to be 
given at length, and we may merely refer to some of the results at 
Hemlock Lake, where plant forms have been identified as follows :— 
Chlorophycez, 20; Cyanophycee, 15; Desmidiw, 14; and Diatomacem, 
41—making a totai of plant forms of 90. The maximum quantities of 
some of these minute plants per 100 cubic centimetres are—Protococcus, 
2000 ; Anabeena, 20,000; Ceelospherium, 34,000; Asterionella, 40,000 ; 
Cyclotella, 60,000; Fragillaria, 25,000; Stephanodiscus, 60,000. The 
total number of animal forms is 92, of which 8 are classed as Spongide, 
10 as Rhizopoda, 29 as Infusoria, 2 as Hydroida, 14 as Rotifera, 3 as 
Polyzoa, 21 as Entomostraca, 1 as Malacostraca, and 10 as insect larve. 
As to maximum quantities of animal forms observed, we find among In- 
fusoria—Dinobryon, 12,000; Glenodinium, 25,000; and Vorticella, 9600. 
The quantities of minute life present in Hemlock Lake, while appar- 
ently large, are in reality quite small, as will be readily appreciated by 
reference to a statement of the number present in Ludlow reservoir, 
Springfield, Massachusetts, where the following maximum quantities per 
100 cubic centimetres have been observed :—-of the Diatoms, Asterionella 
and Melosira, 405,600 in April, 1890; Ccelospherium, 157,600 in August, 
1889; Chlorococcus, 322,400 in October, 1889: of animal forms the 
infusorian Dinobryon showed 364,400 per 100 cubic centimetres in 
February, 1890. But even the large quantities of minute life found at 
