DETECTION OF PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN WATER 263 



It was ascertained that the linen worn by a cholera 

 patient had been washed in one of these tanks, and 

 Koch was able to detect the same organism in this 

 water which he had before isolated from the excreta 

 and from the intestinal contents of persons who had 

 died of cholera, and to which he gave the name of 

 'comma bacillus' (see p. 399). It was first found on 

 February 8, and was still discoverable up to the 23rd, 

 thus showing that during at least fourteen days the 

 cholera bacilli were able to maintain their vitality in 

 this water. 



Nicati and Eietsch 1 state that they found cholera 

 bacilli in the water of the old harbour at Marseilles 

 during a cholera epidemic. 



During the Hamburg epidemic of 1892, cholera 

 bacilli were on several occasions found in water by 

 various observers; thus C. Franke! 2 states that he was 

 able to isolate Koch's comma bacillus from the harbour 

 water at Duisburg. He mentions that a ship with a 

 cholera patient on board had anchored in the harbour 

 about five days before he received the sample of water, 

 and that the excreta of this patient had been thrown 

 into the adjacent water. 



Loeffler 3 again detected the cholera bacilli at Dem- 

 min, in Pomerania, in a water vessel belonging to a 

 house where a death from cholera had occurred. An 

 examination of the well from which the water had been 

 obtained failed to reveal the presence of cholera organ- 

 isms, and it is probable, therefore, that the water had be- 

 come contaminated after being brought into the house. 



1 Rev. d'Hygiene, May 20, 1885. 



2 ' Nachweis der Cholerabakterien irn Flusswasser,' C. Frankel, Deut- 

 sche med. Wochenschrift, 1892, No. 41 ; CentralblaU fur Bakteriologie, 

 vol. xii. p. 914. 



3 ' Zuin Nachweis der Cholerabakterien im Wasser,' CentralblaU filr 

 Bakteriologie^ vol. xiii. p. 380. 



