Localities in which Pellagra is Prevalent. 71 



results of tests made from it in the laboratory are given 

 below, and confirm the impression received from an ex- 

 amination of the spring itself. Such water may not have 

 anything to do with pellagra, yet pellagrins more than others 

 should avoid any possible evil that may lurk in bad drinking 

 water. 



Sample No. 1161. -At twenty-four hours it gave 30,600 

 colonies of bacteria per cubic centimeter; at forty-eight 

 hours it gave 41,000 colonies per cubic centimeter. The 

 dextrose fermentation test gave 35 per cent, gas at the end 

 of the first day; 67 per cent, at the end of the second. The 

 litmus-lactose, acid-lactose, neutral red and acid agar tests 

 each gave positive results. The lactose-bile test gave 25 per 

 cent. gas. 



The water of the streams is of course badly polluted 

 with sewage in and below towns. In the mining camps 

 practically all sewage is received sooner or later by the small 

 creeks. In summer especially when the flow is not great 

 the water must be exceedingly dangerous for drinking. 

 Certainly it ought always to be boiled before using it for 

 this purpose. 



THE CONDITION OF THE CORN CROP ALONG THE STREAMS. 



Corn grows well on the bottom lands along the mountain 

 streams of Bell and adjoining counties. It appeared to me 

 quite as good as that grown elsewhere in the State. Like 

 corn grown in other parts of Kentucky, it was in some fields 

 badly infested with the corn worm (Chloridea obsoleta). The 

 injury done by the insect, even when slight, is generally 

 followed by an invasion of molds, and thus often more harm 

 results from the opening it makes in the husks than from 

 the amount of grain it destroys. Corn brought home with 

 me showed on some of the kernels at the tip of an ear a 

 pink mold, and on the husks dusky blotches, appearing on 

 the inner surface as brown spots with the tissues somewhat 

 elevated and disturbed. The pink fungus appears to .be the 

 same as one observed on corn at Lexington and elsewhere 

 in Kentucky. It gets to the kernels only by way of burrows 



