IN THE VICTORIAN ERA 31 



ants, such insects having previously fed on plague- 

 stricken rats, the mice succumbed to plague in 

 a few hours. Fleas have also been conclusively 

 proved to be carriers of plague germs. 



There is no doubt that the revelations of 

 hygienic science have aroused the vigilance and 

 zeal of public authorities in various new directions 

 to try and cope with the spread of zymotic 

 disease. 



In no direction, perhaps, is the fruit of this 

 energy so apparent as in the increasing super- 

 vision which it has incited over two of the greatest 

 menaces to public health which hang over society 

 i.e. our water and dairy supplies. Now that it 

 has been proven beyond doubt that the germs of 

 consumption, typhoid fever, and cholera can be 

 and are distributed through the consumption of 

 contaminated milk or water, not to mention other 

 diseases such as diphtheria and scarlet fever, an 

 ever-increasing demand is being made that these 

 all-important articles of diet shall be protected 

 from pollution, and that public authorities shall be 

 made responsible for their distribution in a pure 

 and wholesome condition. 



It is, however, undoubtedly in the matter of 

 water that the greatest service has been rendered 

 by bacteriology to sanitary science, and for the 

 important advance in this department we are 



