THE WATEK-SUri'LV OF TOWNS IN THE TUOPIL'S 291 



However useful then this work was for local purposes, it does not help us much 

 in considering the question as a whole, and until recently there were, so far as 

 I know, no statistics of value in this direction. Happily, the first step has now 

 been taken by Major Clemesha'- and his assistants, who have inaugurated in India 

 a series of observations which may yet prove to be epoch-making and are already 

 highly suggestive. 



Let us consider what Clemesha set himself to do and at what conclusions he has Clemesha's 



observations 

 arrived. He stated, in the first instance, that there must be considerable doubt as to 



whether the standards of purity in common use amongst sanitarians in England were 



suitable to India. The simpler tests, when applied to Indian water samples, showed 



that most of the latter are loaded with faecal contamination and that no analyst in 



England would dream of passing them as fit for human consumption. And yet it is 



remarkable that the evil results of using such sewage as drinking-water are not always 



apparent, even on enquiry. True there are outbursts of epidemic cholera ; dysentery, 



like the poor, is always present to some extent, and there is a terrible infantile mortality, 



but all things considered the results are not in proportion to the cause at all times. 



Again, a great deal of the pollution of surface waters in the East is caused by the excrement 



of animals, chiefly cattle and goats, whereas in England the pollution of rivers at least 



has its origin largely in the sewage from towns upon their banks. After these preliminary 



remarks, and others which need not be quoted, Clemesha proceeds to give an account of the 



bacteriological methods he and his assistants followed in their efforts to arrive at a suitable 



standard of purity for the drinking-water in the Madras Presidency. 



With these we are not concerned beyond noting that MacConkey's procedure, 

 somewhat modified and including the use of special sugars, was found of great value, 

 that stress was laid on the value of determining the total colonies on agar, that the 

 sporogenes milk test was adopted as was the reaction of Voges and Proskauer, while, 

 as regards indol, the benzaldehyde reaction was employed. Further, the short cuts which 

 have been devised by Houston in his work for the Metropolitan Water Board were 

 found to be of the greatest service. Having had the privilege of seeing Houston's methods 

 in operation I can well believe this to be the case, especially in a hot country where 

 every labour-saving device is to be commended. 



An important chapter in Clemesha's report is that in which he considers the "coli" lhe"coh" 



-i-Tip-i-Tii-- standard as 



standard as applied to India. He points out how bacteriologists diner in their definition applied to 

 of B. coli communis, and he gives the interpretations put upon it by four authorities, India 

 namely the English Committee, the .\merican Committee, Houston and Savage. There 

 are two main schools of thought he says : — 



" 1. The position taken up by Houston, Savage, and nearly all other bacteriologists in 

 England, who apply the term ' coli ' in an elastic sense to an organism defined as above, 

 but who recognise a large number of ill-defined varieties, termed by them ' atypical coli,' 

 so that the term is in reality made use of to describe a group of varieties, if not different 

 species. 



" 2. That taken up by MacConkey, Drs. Bergey and Doehan, of the Pennsylvania 

 University, Dr. Orr (in his recent work on the contamination of milk) and ourselves, who 

 applv tlie name Barillns coli communis to Escherich's organism only, calling all bacilli that 

 differ from it in any ' permanent ' test, different species, to which different names or 

 numbers are applied." 



"We in India," he continues, "consider the position maintained by the former 

 authorities is open to two objections : — (1) That it is inadvisable to apply the term ' coli 



