149 
POLLUTION OF WATER BY BATHERS. 
A bacteriological study of the water used by a bather at the Victoria 
Baths at Bonn,' shows well the character and amount of pollution that 
may take place in public baths. ‘The test was made on a stoker (Heizer). 
who was made to wash in a tub for three minutes, using no soap. Before 
the test, the bath water contained 24 bacteria in a cubic centimeter, and 
no Bacillus coli. Atter the three minute washing, the bath water con- 
tained 1,900 bacteria and 40 Bacillus coli in each cubic centimeter. 
Bacteriological tests made by the writer on the water of the swimming 
pool in the new memorial gymnasium at Purdue University demonstrated 
the presence of 930 bacteria per cubic centimeter in the water of the pool 
before being used by the bathers. After use by about thirty bathers, all 
of whom were supposed to have taken a soap shower before entering the 
pool, the bacterial content was 109,200 per cubic centimeter. Tests were 
made for Bacillus coli, and the results were consistently positive after the 
pool had been used. The water immediately after cleaning the pool and 
refilling gave consistently negative results for Bacillus coli. 
The available literature gave almost no data as to bacteriological 
analyses of swimming pool waters.* 
DISEASE DANGERS IN SWIMMING POOLS. 
There are great chances for the dissemination of germ diseases through 
indoor swimming pools. The results of the bacteriological tests given in 
the preceding paragraphs, which showed the constant presence of the 
Bacillus coli in the water used by bathers, demonstrates the possibility 
of intestinal diseases, particularly typhoid fever. While bathers do not 
swallow the water intentionally, it is next to impossible to avoid getting 
some water into the nose and mouth, which would ultimately reach the 
intestinal tract. One does not have to be sick or to have any symptoms 
of typhoid fever to disseminate the germs of that disease. This is well 
shown in the notorious case of “Typhoid Mary” in New York.* 
Diseases of the respiratory tract have an unusual chance to be spread 
in the swimming pool. The bather with incipient tuberculosis, pneumonia 
‘Zur Hygiene der Hallenschwimmbade. Dr. Selter. Aus dem Ilygienischen 
Inst. der Univ. Bonn. Rundschau, Dec. 1, 1908. 
* Hesse, Dresden. Zeitschrift f.. Hyg. Bd. 25. Eden, Berlin. Arch, f. Hyg. Bd. 
19. Koslik, Gratz. Diese Zeitschr. 1898, 8. 361. 
° Whipple. Typhoid Fever. 
