22 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



All of the water supplies investigated showed themselves to be 

 good, potable water. An inspection of the ice used in the coolers 

 quite often revealed the presence of dirt in artificial as well as 

 natural ice. 



The presence of B. pyocyaneus is of no great significance, as 

 organisms closely resembling or identical with it are often found 

 in normal waters. Its source could not be determined, but was 

 probably from the air or dirt. No cuts or wounds were found on 

 the hands of those handling the ice, water or coolers. As men- 

 tioned above, one must not lay too much stress on a body-tem- 

 perature count alone, yet from the data obtained at Kansas City 

 it will be noted that of those trains watered at Kansas City, 

 nearly 20 per cent had counts under 100 per cc, and 12 per cent 

 had counts of 40 per cc. or less, while the sources of supply showed 

 a count of 20 per cc. with no B. coli present in 10 cc. From this 

 data, and after making a sanitary survey of conditions, it seems 

 that there is no excuse for so many samples having body tempera- 

 ture counts of over 350 per cc, and that these high counts show 

 carelessness in cleaning the coolers and handling the ice. 



The publication of this paper at this time has been made be- 

 cause of its historical interest and because of numerous requests 

 for reprints of the report. It should be understood that these 

 conditions probably in no way exist to-day since the federal gov- 

 ernment and the state of Kansas have carefully carried out in- 

 vestigations, and laws have been passed regulating the handling 

 of drinking water on common carriers. This investigation which 

 Doctor Crumbine had carried out was, perhaps, the first of its kind 

 in the United States. As a result of it, the Kansas State Board 

 of Health formulated rules and regulations governing drinking 

 water on trains, which antedated the federal government's action 

 over two years. He made use of this and other data at his com- 

 mand in his pioneer work for the betterment of conditions of 

 drinking water on common carriers. 



Since this investigation was made much research work and im- 

 provement has been done along lines of water investigation. The 

 value of lactose bile has been questioned because of its inhibitive 

 action on the colon group, and some interesting work along the 

 line of differentiation between fecal and other strains of bacillus 

 coli has been carried out. 



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