550 Profs. Percy Frankland and Marshall Ward. 



on artificial media. It is, however, obviously a matter of great 

 importance to ascertain how anthrax bacilli, entirely free from spores, 

 as they are found in the tissues of animals which have succumbed to 

 this disease, behave when they are introduced into potable water. 

 There is the more urgency for this investigation, as it was pointed 

 out in the introduction to the Report that the experiments previously 

 undertaken by others in this direction have led to highly discordant 

 results. 



The experiments which we have made on this subject were incidental 

 to another investigation, on which we propose reporting later on, but 

 as these experiments should have been made in connection with the 

 2nd Report, had time and opportunity permitted, we are bringing 

 them forward now to fill up without further delay the hiatus in that 

 Report. 



First Series of Experiments. 



The spleen of a white mouse, dead of anthrax, was excised under 

 the usual aseptic precautions, and transferred to a small sterile bottle 

 containing 20 c.c. of sterilised tap water, in which it was completely 

 broken up by bruising with a sterile glass rod. More sterile water 

 about 50 c.c. in all, was added to the bottle, and the whole violently 

 shaken for fifteen minutes, so as to ensure even distribution of the 

 bacilli throughout the water. 10 c.c. of this water attenuation were 

 then added to about 400 c.c. of steam-sterilised Dundee water and 

 thoroughly mixed, after which this infected water was distributed 

 amongst a number of sterile tubes plugged with cotton wool. This 

 infected water was submitted to plate cultivation on the same clay, 

 with the following results : 



f c.c. water yielded 8,190* anthrax colonies per 1 c.c, 



7,871 



{1 Q Q C)OK 



V " 8325 



TT " 0,0/0 ,, 



Tube 18 {t 



*. To " " O, LUU ,, ,, 



Tube 19 (V " 10.248 



L-jV ,, ,, 12,810 ,, ., 



Tube 20 { ^ 9 ' 408 



L-fV >> 6,050 ,, ,, 



90,949 



Average 9,095 



Thus, on the day of infection the water contained about 9000 

 anthrax bacilli per 1 c.c. 



* All these plates were incubated for 5 days at 18 20 C. 



/ I 



^ A 



*- 



