BACTERIOLOGY AND WATER 



WHILST the Hamburg cholera disaster of 

 1892 will certainly rank in the annals of 

 epidemiology as one of the great catastrophes 

 of recent times, it will also be memorable as one 

 of the most instructive which has ever taken place. 



It is perhaps not unnatural that this should be 

 the case, for since the last European epidemic of 

 importance our study of the principles of sanita- 

 tion has received a new impetus, and this impetus 

 must be in great part ascribed to the science of 

 bacteriology, which has sprung into existence 

 within the past two decades. We have now no 

 longer to confront mysterious and unknown 

 morbific material, but have been brought face to 

 face with some of the most dreaded foes of the 

 human race. We are no longer groping, as it 

 were, in the dark, but have a definite object, in 

 the shape of well -recognised micro-organisms 

 associated with specific zymotic diseases, for our 

 common crusade. 



But it is the light which has been thrown for 

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