AIR BENEATH THE MICROSCOPE. 
171 
still, some of them are not devoid of interest, as the following 
remarks will show. Infinitely the greater number are appa- 
rently referable to the fungous orders, Sphoeronemei , Melan- 
conei , Torulacei , Dematei , Mucedines , Puccinicei , and 
Ceomacei. Among these by far the most interesting was a 
specimen of the Torulacei , a species of the rare genus Tetroploa 
(see fig. 4, Plate CIX.). This was found only in two instances. 
The next curious specimen was one of a peculiar green algoid 
cell. This was obtained from Alipore. The specimen shows a 
number of green cells (see fig. 5), circular in outline, of various 
sizes, and showing a division of their contents into from two 
to four separate piles. The presence of these Dr. Cunningham 
apparently attributes to a tank in the neighbourhood, so that 
if this view be correct they have no real bearing on the case. 
However, we may suppose as at least possible that they were 
not due to the tank at all. Next in order is another peculiar 
specimen, which is supposed to be the pollen of some species of 
lily (see fig. 6). Of course its peculiarity in this instance is 
simply its rarity of occurrence. 
Finally we come to the specimens which more than any other 
have an especial importance, and these are the ones represented 
in figs. 7 and 8 (Plate CIX.). They are of importance because 
they are peculiar, and because they are from two different loca- 
lities, and from both of these places at the time when cholera 
was present largely. It is of interest to note the number of the 
peculiar curved spores that appear in both these cases, and to 
observe that these spores did not appear before when cholera 
was not present. They would, indeed, lead one to believe in 
them as the parents of cholera. But unhappily Dr. Cunning- 
ham’s inquiries, which were conducted for a long time subse- 
quently to this observation, show that these peculiar spore-like 
bodies did not appear in many other cases in which the mor- 
tality from cholera was even greater than it was during their 
presence ; thus showing, as he thinks — with very good reason we 
imagine — that it was only because their period of growth was 
at the time of the first experiment, that they were present, and 
that their absence was due not to the absence of cholera which 
raged violently at the time, but to the fact that their peculiar 
season had passed by. And, as he very properly observes, it 
shows the necessity for the carrying out of researches all the 
year round ; for unquestionably if his inquiries had stopped at 
the period of finding these specimens, a very different conclu- 
sion would inevitably have been framed. 
Although we have been unable to give even the briefest 
account of Dr. Cunningham’s inquiries upon this subject in 
many of the channels he has adopted, we may nevertheless 
give the following conclusions which he has laid down, as they 
