290 
THE PRINCIPLES OP BOTANY. 
who took them to attacks of cholera. At the time I exa- 
mined them, October, 1854, the majority of these waters 
presented no organic peculiarities. One of them, however, 
that of Broad Street, Golden Square, and which was after- 
wards proved to have been remarkably connected with the 
great outbreak of cholera in the parish of St. James, in Sep- 
tember, 1854, presented, after standing a little time, a 
cloudiness visible to the naked eye. On examining a few drops 
of this water with the quarter-inch object-glass, the cloudiness 
was seen to be produced by the flocculent mycelium of a 
fungus. 
“ The fungus produced a sporidium, which was at first 
filled with closely packed spores. After a little time they 
exhibited movement, and eventually burst the spore-cases 
and became distributed by their movements through the 
water.” 
The learned doctor then goes on to describe a similar 
occurrence in some suspected water at Cirencester, but, as we 
were engaged in that inquiry, we will now state our own 
observations upon the matter. 
A gentleman living in the centre of the borough of Ciren- 
cester had his whole family attacked with illness, and one 
child died. The water was suspected, and some of it was 
sent to Professor Daubeny, and some to Dr. Voelcker and to 
Mr. Terry of Bath. 
Dr. Voelcker reported the contents of two imperial pints 
as follows : 
Inorganic substances . . . 6 ’9 4 grains. 
Organic matter .... 0 3 7 „ 
7-31 
Dr. Voelcker considered that, as far as it was chemically 
concerned, the water was a wholesome drinking water. 
Mr. Terry said — “ I have been able to discover no trace of 
sulphuretted hydrogen nor ammonia in the water. The fresh 
water under the microscope gives evidence of much vegetable 
growth.” 
Now, upon inspecting the pump, we found that its leaden 
mouth was coated with an opaque gelatinous substance, which 
appeared to be but agglomerated masses of the mycelium of 
the fungus, of which loose flocculi, as figured from our draw- 
ings in the illustration in Dr. Lankester’s paper before re- 
ferred to, had previously been found floating in the purnped- 
up water. 
On examining other wells in the town we found the same 
fungus ; and as at that time a kind of low fever was some- 
