8 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[July 4, 1884. 



•would be absolutely poisonous to Homo sapiens ; indeed, 

 such deleterious waters are often so constantly associated 

 ■with certain forms of life, both animal and vegetaVjle, that 

 their presence is always sufficient to determine the character 

 of the liquid as unsuitable to man. The question may here 

 be raised that it is the ingestion of the living things 

 •which produces the evil effects, and that is very true to a 

 large extent; but besides the growth and multiplication 

 within our bodies of disease-producing germs, the waters 

 which they inhabit are chemically contaminated ; the fer- 

 mentative action which they set up therein results in the 

 elimination of non-living substances, which, apart from the 

 oi'ganisms themselves, are highly poisonous. And we 

 would here suggest that the first rapid, and in some cases 

 almost instantaneous, phase in zymotic diseases may not be 

 so much due to the growth and development of the germs 

 themselves, as to the poisonous ferments which they create, 

 and which are imbibed along with them. 



As instances of what we would here imply, we may 

 point to the fermentative action of the yeast-plant (Sac- 

 cJiaromyces cerevisi(e)*, which produces alcohol, and which, 

 even after death through the administration of ether,t gives 

 rise to a non-living soluble ferment, which transforms cane 

 into grape-sugar. The alcohol and the glucogenic ferment 

 retain their properties after the yeast-plant itself has ceased 

 to exist. The butyric acid remains as butyric acid after 

 the bacterium [Bacillum sublilc) has passed away. Foul 

 gases and putrefactive fluids remain after the death of 

 Bacterium termo ; and may we not with reason expect to 

 find that the greater part of the mischief which ends in 

 splenic disease, pulmonary tubercles, and leprous deforma- 

 tions, is the immediate cause of the ferments produced by 

 their respective bacteria {Bacillum anthracis, B. tuher- 

 culosus, and B. leprcr) ; and that our physicians in their 

 setiological studies might direct some of their ex]ieriments 

 towards finding antidotes for these poisons ? Cannot a 

 specific be found to neutralise the ferment of B. ttcher- 

 culosits, and be applied so as to result in the reduction of 

 tubercle in this way 1 We trust that the time has arrived 

 when experimental inquiry shall partially turn from the 

 inoculation of guinea-pigs and the preparation of micro- 

 scopical slides from the tissues of the poor innocent victims, 

 to the chemical side of the question, where the disease 

 germs only shall be sacrificed at the altar of ^sculapius.l 



We are not digressing ; we are only trying to show by 

 living examples how very much this aspect of the water 

 question has been neglected. Pages of matter have been 

 devoted by various authors to the consideration of the 

 purifying processes of Nature, such as the open flows of 

 water in rivers, aqueducts, down cataracts, and gullies, and 

 its percolation through the soil, subsoil, and rock to wells 

 of great depth, all the arguments for which are based upon 

 the theory that, through oxidation of organic remains, the 

 harmful azotised and carbonaceous matters are converted 

 into useful nitrates and carbon dioxide, and the water thus 

 fitted for domestic purposes. Now, all this is very true 

 about dead forms of life, but what about the living 1 And, 



* In reply to an inquiry as to the average size of the yeast cell, 

 we may state that our own measurements were taken from the 

 larger variety of the plant known as " German," " dry," or 

 " baker's " yeast, viz., 12 micromillimfetres, or about 1-2000 inch. 

 Ordinary brewer's " barm," however, usually furnishes cells which 

 measure only 8fi, or 1-3200 inch approximately. 



t Hoppe-Seyler, in " Watts' Dictionary of Chemistry," second 

 Supplemeut, London, 1875, p. 522. 



t The prevention of zymotic diseases by a prior removal of the 

 germs from food substances does not so much concern our medical 

 brethren, as our purely chemical confreres, naturalists, and practical 

 workers. We may leave the ^l^sclepiadm to cope mth Archseus and 

 his emissaries after the mischief has been done. 



still more, what about the nascent living or germ ccmdi- 

 tionl 



All Bacteria, but more particularly the forms termed 

 Bacilli, are excessively minute bodies, chiefly of rod-like* 

 shapes in their adult condition ; they are assigned to the 

 group of ScMzomycetes amongst the lower Fungi, Micro- 

 coccus is a rounded form, and averages about ^ ,^ ;, „ „ in. in 

 diameter, or only 1 /i.t Bacterium termo, the active agent 

 in putrefaction, is about 1 ^ in breadth by \-i> fx in length. 

 The majority of Bacilli are infinitesimal in size ; in fact, 

 in a specimen of the Bacillum of Oriental leprosy which 

 recently came under our notice, it was difiicult to detect any 

 signs of the germs with a magnifying power of even .500 dia- 

 meters ; but with 1,000 diameters we were able to distinguish 

 certain nests (stained methyl violet), in the substance of 

 the fine connective tissue of the papill;e of the skin, which 

 latter was tinged with Bismarck brown. On careful ex- 

 amination, these nests were seen to be composed of copgeries 

 of little rods, or Bacilli. So much, then, in proof of the 

 minuteness of these disease-germs. The presence of oxygen 

 and carbon dioxide given to the water can scarcely be held 

 as destructive to such forms of life ; they would rather 

 tend to an opposite result. However that may be, bacteria 

 are most tenacious of their existence ; otherwise, how 

 could they have survived the ill-treatment received at the 

 hand of Dr. Bastian and other observers ? According to 

 Eidami they are killed by a fourteen hours' exposure to 

 a temperature of 40° C, or a three hours' exposure to 

 4.5° C. Their yrms when drt/ can resist 110" C, but suc- 

 cumb when 120° C. is reached§. Tyndall|| also has shown 

 that infusions with bacteria are not sterilised unless they 

 are subjected to prolonged -boiling — about four hours. 

 When moist, however, they are more easily destroyed ; and 

 here is the bearing of the germ question upon the water 

 supply : — 



The activity of the germs seems to be manifested only 

 in the presence of moisture. Recent researches, especially 

 those communicated to the Parisian Academy of Sciences, 

 have shown that the air teems with these primitive forms ; 

 they have been actually strained therefrom, and an ap- 

 proximate estimation of their numbers in a given volume 

 of the atmosphere at different seasons, places, and under 

 specified conditions has been formulated. It has been 

 shown that after a shower of rain the air is considerably 

 purified of these organisms ; they are caiTied down by the 

 water into the soil, and there they increase and multiply 

 under favourable conditions to vitiate the air once more 

 with their countless descendants. 



Their methods of reproduction have been ascertained 

 through microscopical investigation ; and, so far as we are 

 aware, they are propagated (a) by fission, or division of an 

 adult into two individuals by constriction, and subsequent 

 separation of the parts ; (/5) by a process closely allied to 

 fission, called the zooglaa stage, in which division seems to 

 be carried on in a passive state, embedded in a jelly-like 

 surrounding ; and (y), as first shown by Koch,ir and 

 verified by Ewart,** through elongation of the rods into 

 filaments, the internal portion of which becomes subdivided 

 into small, highly refractive particles or germs, which are 

 liberated through the bursting of the parent envelope. 



* Bacterium, from the Gr. [iaxTpov, a rod or staff. BacHlum, 

 dim. of Lat. haenlum, a little rod. 



+ Here, as elsewhere, we shall denote the micTomilHmifre by 

 the Greek letter /i. 1 /j =00000397 inch. 



X " Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen," by Cohn, Vol. I., p. 223. 



§ Sanderson and Ewart iu " Proc. Koy. Soc.," Vol. 28, p. -177. 



il " Trans. Roy. Soc," Vol. clxvii., pp. 140 et 177. 



^ " Beitr. zur Biol. d. Pflanzen," by Cohn, Vol. ii., p. 3. 



** " Proc. Roy. Soc," Vol. xxvii., p. 474. 



