BACTERIA IN DECOMPOSING SALMON 107 



the bacteria found within the cannery were those which came 

 from the salmon and the sea-water. The investigation has 

 shown that many of the organisms collected are generally dis- 

 tributed throughout the canneiy and arc not restricted to any 

 particular part. In the case of such cultures as 430, 450 and 

 460, which were found eight, nine and seven times respectively, 

 the organisms were isolated all the way along the canning line 

 from the butchering table to the retorts. Since the location 

 within the cannery, from which the culture was obtained, has 

 no particular significance in a report of this kind, no note of it 

 has been made in the tables. It is thought sufficient to give simply 

 the geograi)hical location from wliich the culture was obtained. 

 Of the 79 cultures reported here only 39 or about 49 per cent 

 were found to have a common source such as sea-water and 

 salmon, sea-water and the cannery or salmon and the cannery. 

 If a larger number of cultures had been collected from a large 

 number of sources throughout the salmon camiing region, it is 

 verj' probable that this percentage of correlation would be in- 

 creased. Of the 15 cultures from sea-water there are only three 

 (Wi, Wia, and Woi,) which were not also found in salmon, in the 

 cannery or in both salmon and the cannery. Fifteen cultures 

 from salmon are identical with cultures from other sources 

 and 14 cultures were isolated from salmon and not isolated 

 from sea-water or from the canneries. Of the 35 cultures re- 

 ported from canneries only 12 were obtamed from other sources. 

 In considering the comparatively small number of cultures 

 collected (316) over such a large area it is not surprising that 

 not more than 49 per cent of them were isolated from the three 

 sources. There are only four cultures in the collection from 

 sea-water (Wi, Wu, Wvb and Wgb) which were not also found in 

 decomposing salmon and it seems probable that if the number of 

 cultures from salmon were larger it would include these four 

 organisms. On the other hand it is also probable that, if it had 

 been possible to collect a larger number of water samples and, 

 hence, a larger number of cultures from water, very many of the 

 14 cultures from salmon, which it was impossible to correlate 

 with any other source, would have been included in the sea-water 

 flora. This is particularly true of such organisms as Bad. coli 



