THE HYGIENE OF THE BUBBLE FOUNTAIN 473 



University ranging from a plain rusty half-inch iron pipe with 

 constant flow, in some remote corners of the campus, to the lat- 

 est porcelain device with automatic shutoff in more prominent 

 situations. In general the simpler fountains such as the rusty 

 pipe were not infected, whereas the complex fountains with inter- 

 mittent flow and those with crevices and crannies between the 

 inner and outer portions were the worst offenders, although pre- 

 sumably the location of the fountain was a factor in this result. 

 In fact it is worthy of note in connection with the epidemic in 

 the women's dormitory that streptococci were found most often 

 in those buildings frequented by the women students while the 

 Law Building, Engineering Building, Armory, etc., were quite as 

 uniformly free from such contamination. 



To control these rather surprising results a second survey of 

 the fountains was made about a year later, at a time when there 

 was no unusual number of upper respiratory infections, but fol- 

 lowing a period of unusual incidence of "grippe" both in the 

 University and throughout the country. Samples of water and 

 swabbings were taken from fifty fountains, excluding many of 

 those less commonly used. The earlier results were completely 

 confirmed, as Gram positive streptococci were found in 35 out 

 of the 50, 70 per cent of the total. 



The streptococci found are somewhat difficult to isolate, and 

 readily overgrown by the common water organisms, developing 

 well in glucose broth but not on other media. They are only 

 slightly virulent to experimental animals. Further studies of 

 these strains are being carried on. 



As a further control a Berkefeld filter was attached to a city 

 water faucet and the water allowed to flow for one week. During 

 this period it was estimated that about 3300 liters passed through 

 the filter and yet smears and cultures made from the deposit on 

 the filter showed not only no streptococci but no Gram positive 

 organisms present. This control was repeated. 



In order to study the factors involved in the contamination of 

 the fountains, a series of tests were performed on an experi- 

 mental bubbler in the laboratory. This particular fountain is 

 one of an ordinary continuous flow type, the bubble being fed 



