THE ACTION OF CERTAIN BACTERIA ON THE 

 NITROGENOUS MATERIAL OF SEWAGE 



E. G. BIRGE 



Edward Grant Birge was born April 24, 1881, at Leip- 

 zig, Germany, at which time his father was studying at 

 the University of Leipzig. 



Educated in the public schools at Madison, Wisconsin, 

 graduating from the high school in 1899. 



Entered the University of Wisconsin in the fall of that 

 year where he took the premedical course, graduating. in 

 1903. 



Entered Johns Hopkins, graduating with the M. D. 

 degree in 1907. 



For three years was bacteriologist with the Sewerage 

 Commission of the city of Baltimore, going from there 

 to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he became bacteriolo- 

 gist for the Pennsylvania railroad. 



In the fall of 1912 he went to Harvard Medical School 

 as assistant to Dr. Milton J. Rosenau in the department 

 of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine. 



In 1914 he went to Florida as State Bacteriologist 

 where he remained until the United States went into the 

 war. 



In April, 1917, he volunteered with the Medical Re- 

 serve Corps and was given the commission of Captain. 



He was sent to Fort Oglethorpe in August of that 

 year where he remained for nearly a year. From there 

 he was sent to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, and then to 

 Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, North Carolina. He re- 

 ceived his discharge in August, 1919, going immediately 

 to the University of Iowa as Professor of Bacteriology 

 and State Epidemiologist, which position he filled until 

 his death from influenza on February 4, 1920. 



The bio-chemical work which has been done on sewage in 

 the past has been confined almost entirely to the changes 

 taking place in the various forms of filter beds. We have 

 then considerable information concerning bacterial action in 

 the filter beds, but our knowledge of this action in the septic 

 tank is in a more chaotic state. What little we know is the 

 "mass action" of all organisms, bacterial and otherwise, which 

 play a role in the preparation of sewage for further treat- 

 ment. 



The primary object of this paper, which must be considered 

 as preliminary, is to determine what certain individual species 



