OTHER INTESTINAL BACTERIA 203 



no streptococci in one-tenth of a c.c, although the 

 chemical and the ordinary bacteriological tests gave 

 results which would condemn the waters. Horrocks 

 (Horrocks, 1901) found these organisms in great abun- 

 dance in sewage and in waters which were known to be 

 sewage-polluted, but which contained no traces of 

 Bacillus coli. He foimd by experiment that B. coli 

 gradually disappeared from specimens of sewage kept 

 in the dark at the temperature of an outside veranda, 

 while the commonest forms which persisted were varieties 

 of streptococci and staphylococci. 



In America attention was first called to these organisms 

 by Hunnewell and one of us (Winslow and Hunnewell, 

 1902^), and the same authors later (Winslow and Hunne- 

 well, 1902^) recorded the isolation of streptococci from 

 25 out of 50 samples of polluted waters. Gage (Gage, 

 1902), from the Lawrence Experiment Station, has 

 reported the organisms present in the sewage of that 

 city, while Prescott (1902^) has shown that they are 

 abundant in faecal matter and often overgrow B. coli in 

 a few hours when inoculations are made from such 

 material into dextrose broth. In the monograph of 

 Le Gros (Le Gros, 1902) of the many streptococci 

 described, all without exception were isolated, either 

 from the body or from sewage. Baker and one of us 

 (Prescott and Baker, 1904), found these organisms 

 present in each of 50 samples of polluted waters. On 

 the other hand, in the study of 259 samples of presuma- 

 bly unpolluted waters, by the method of direct plating, 

 Nibecker and of the authors (Winslow and Nibecker, 

 1903) found streptococci in only one sample. Clemesha 



