Barègine

Barègine, a slimy or gelatinous deposit in the hot sulphurous springs at Barèges, Aix-la-Chapelle, and elsewhere, which is found on microscopic examination to consist of masses of rods and filaments of Beggiatoa (see BACTERIA) mixed with grains of reduced sulphur. The thermal waters apparently act as culture-fluids for the atmospheric germs, and it is to the vital activities of these fungi that Cohn ascribes the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen from the spring.