134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



into the human body of the bacteria which cause 

 Typhoid Fever and Cholera. Under certain favourable 

 conditions there is little doubt that these specific organ- 

 isms are capable of multiplication outside the body, and 

 that such multiphcation has taken place in water intended 

 for drinking, and thus become the cause of epidemics. 

 So far as is known the only two zymotic diseases that are 

 ever thus conveyed in water are Typhoid and Cholera, 

 although there are some whom Professor Koch terms 

 " Water Fanatics," who attribute far greater powers to 

 water as a carrier of disease germs, or who argue that the 

 infection of Typhoid and Cholera is never borne by any 

 other means than by water. To most persons who have 

 had experience of the matter, however, the last assertion 

 appears an undoubted fallacy. There is little doubt that 

 Typhoid Fever, for instance, is frequently set up and 

 conveyed from person to person irrespective of drinking 

 water ; faulty drainage being probably an initiating cause 

 as well as water suppl}^, and a crowding together of the 

 healthy and the sick also resulting in the spread of the 

 disease. The germs of these two diseases are also 

 very likely to be introduced by other articles of food 

 and drink besides w^ater. In both Typhoid and Cholera 

 the bacteria of the disease, are contained in great numbers 

 in the bowel evacuations and are consequently liable 

 to pass into drains and sewers and possibly into streams, 

 rivers, and other sources of drinking water, where they 

 may under favourable conditions multiply. Experience 

 of epidemics of Typhoid that have been traced to water 

 supplies in England have proved that the danger is 

 almost limited to supplies or collections of water as 

 in wells or small brooks, where it is possible that a 

 comparatively high degree of pollution by matter contain- 

 ing Typhoid bacilli may be reached. When such matter 

 is poured into a great stream such as the Thames or 

 Severn the possibility of the multiplication of its bacilli 



