78 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



is by no means easy of estimation, and that 

 numerous and very varied factors have to be 

 taken into account when we attempt to endow 

 it with any measure of practical hygienic import- 

 ance. 



In connection with the vitality of anthrax 

 germs in water, which has afforded material for 

 so many laboratory investigations, it is of interest 

 to consider what chance exists of anthrax being 

 communicated by water. Until a few years ago, 

 as far as I am aware, no instance had been 

 recorded of anthrax having been actually com- 

 municated by water, until an outbreak of anthrax 

 on a farm in the south of Russia was distinctly 

 traced by a skilled bacteriologist to the use of 

 water from a particular well, in the sediment of 

 which the bacillus of anthrax was discovered. 



Anthrax bacilli have also been detected in 

 the water of the River Illinois in the vicinity of 

 Chicago, one of the chief sources of pollution 

 of which is the slaughtering of cattle and the 

 discharge of their offal into the river. 



The likelihood of such contamination taking 

 place through the drainage of soil makes it of 

 importance to ascertain what may become of the 

 bacilli of anthrax derived from the bodies of 

 animals which have died of this disease, and 

 whose carcasses have been buried and not burnt. 



