The sulphur bacteria are found in shallow waters, both marine and fresh, and play an active part in the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter. They require for their full development an abundant supply of oxygen and of sulphuretted hydrogen. They do not thrive unless the water is periodically renewed, or else is so shallow that oxygen is obtainable to a fairly large extent from the atmosphere. When the oxygen is used up their development rapidly comes to an end, and in some cases, as is described below, the organisms disappear completely. They derive their supply of sulphuretted hydrogen from the decomposition of the protein molecule of vegetable and animal matter. Usually a growth of sulphur bacteria is visible to the naked eye as a greyish or reddish mantle covering the surface of a mass of decomposing organic matter. If, for some reason or other, the supply of oxygen is not plentiful at the bottom of the pool, the mass of growth leaves the surface of the decomposing matter and moves nearer the surface of the water.