22 MORE MINOR HORRORS 



adjacent to the kitchens ; in no case were 

 they taken from lavatories or from state- 

 rooms*. The general condition of the ship, 

 which was almost new, was one of excep- 

 tional cleanliness, and thus afforded good 

 conditions for the experiments. Dr. Morrell 

 was of opinion that there was little danger 

 except by contamination from the faeces of 

 the infected insect. 



One of his first experiments was to prove 

 that should cockroaches fall into the dough 

 which was being baked for bread the heat of 

 the baking entirely destroyed the bacilli that 

 were in the alimentary canal of the insect. 

 With regard to infection with the colon bacil- 

 lus, he kept an infected insect under the best 

 antiseptic conditions he could compass until 

 it had passed some undigested food. Of 

 this undigested food an emulsion was pre- 

 pared, and cultures were made from it on 

 bile-salt medium and in litmus-milk. After- 

 wards special cultures were made in gelatine 

 and peptone solutions. Incubation was con- 

 ducted in all cases at 37° C, and cultures 

 were made from seventeen specimens. Five 

 of these produced colonies of bacilli on the 

 bile-salt medium, with sub-culture results as 

 follows : Four produced acidity and clotting 

 of milk, acid, and gas in glucose, lactose, and 

 saccharose, and production of indol. But the 



