740 
Water in Relation to Health and Disease. 
and taste from a fresli-water sponge, Sponr/illa fluviatilis, and 
chemical examination resulted in showing it to contain a large 
percentage of albuminoid ammonia, and after standing a rapid 
increase of free ammonia was found to take place in it. When 
the plant was removed from the storage basins in which it grew 
the unwholesome condition of the water disappeared. 
It is recorded by Mr. Francis, of Adelaide, that in 1878 the 
lakes which form the estuary of the Murray contained a Conferva 
in such quantities as to render the water poisonous to farm 
animals. He believed it to be the Nodularis spumigera , a plant 
allied to Protococcus. It forms a thick scum, like green paint, 
some two to six inches thick, and as pasty as porridge ; it is 
swallowed by cattle when drinking, especially such as suck their 
drink from the surface like horses. On being ingested it acts 
poisonously, and rapidly causes death. 
The symptoms caused by it were stupor and unconsciousness, 
the animals falling and remaining just as if asleep, unless touched, 
when convulsions came on, and the head and neck were drawn 
back by rigid spasm. Death took place in the case of sheep in from 
one to eight hours, in horses in from eight to twenty-four hours; 
dogs succumbed in from four to five hours, and pigs in from three 
to four. In a sheep to which thirty ounces of the fresh scum 
was given death resulted in fifteen hours. On a post-mortem 
examination being made, all the scum was found to have been 
absorbed. The abdominal cavity contained two pints of yellow 
serum. The heart was flabby, and had around it a considerable 
amount of effused serum. The lungs, liver, and substance of 
the brain were healthy, but the outer membrane of the brain 
(the dura mater) was congested. Blood throughout the veins and 
arteries, and in the cavities of the heart, was black and un- 
coagulable, neither did it become scarlet on exposure to the air. 
Many sheep that died on being opened presented the same 
appearances, all being without any signs of the plant in the 
stomach. This, says Mr. Francis, shows that it is rapidly 
absorbed into the circulation, where it must act as a ferment 
aud cause disorganisation. When the scum is left in wet 
pools and puddles it rapidly decomposes, giving off a most 
horrid stench, like putrid urine or archil in process of manu- 
facture ; but previous to its getting into that state it emits the 
smell of butyric acid, like very rancid butter. 
• 
Pollution of Rivers. 
Rivers, streams, and ponds are the receptacles into which 
water naturally finds its way, either from the surface on which 
