1 82 BACTERIA. 



The custom amongst the Chinese "is to carefully collect human excreta 

 and add these to water ; this mixture is then used for watering vegetables, 

 &c., so that the leaves come in for a fair share. All European and Chinese 

 night soil is collected daily and carried away to be used for agricultural pur- 

 poses. No night soil finds its way into drains, and there are no water closets," 

 and all refuse not used directly for watering vegetables is carried into the 

 country and used for agricultural purposes, so that if the poison be in the 

 excreta, in China at least, its deposition in the ground is secured, and it has 

 certainly been discovered empirically by European residents that vegetables 

 cannot be taken with impunity. " Chinese vegetables are regarded with 

 suspicion during the cholera season, more especially such as are uncooked." 



When the relation of the comma bacillus to the dejecta 

 from cholera patients is borne in mind, there can be little 

 wonder that the consumption of Chinese lettuces should be 

 followed by an attack of cholera. In connection with the 

 conveyance of cholera by means of drinking water, it may be 

 objected that the Chinese do not drink water as a rule, but 

 indulge in weak tea ; but here again it is stated that water 

 for household use is stored in an earthenware or wooden 

 vessel placed in or near the kitchen, and into this vessel 

 others are dipped from time to time. The water is obtained 

 from creeks or wells. Vegetables may be seen hanging over 

 these vessels or lying on tables, so that though the vegetables 

 are cooked, tables, dishes, cloths, and all that come in con- 

 tact with uncooked vegetables furnish abundant opportunity 

 for contamination of food after it has been cooked, where 

 such filthy habits prevail as amongst the Chinese. They 

 do not use milk as do foreigners, but they supply it, and from 

 what has been said of vegetables and Chinese habits, unless 

 the supply is known to be well cared for, it cannot be regarded 

 as beyond suspicion of forming a vehicle for the distribution 

 of cholera, typhoid, and other poisons. It is evident, then, 

 that although no one set of factors alone can be looked upon 

 as determining or explaining all outbreaks of cholera, the 

 bacillus, so far as our present knowledge goes, must be 

 looked upon as the essential factor in the causation of the 

 disease ; this bacillus, like every other organism that we 

 know throughout the whole animal and plant kingdoms, 

 being, to a great extent, dependent on its environments for 

 its very existence. In considering this question let it be 

 understood most distinctly that though the bacillus is proved 

 to be the cause of the disease, it is not necessary to assume, 

 as some people seem to suppose, that the careful, and in 



