140 



The studies with water were taken up primarily to determine 

 the possibility of obtaining pure water by means of electricity, but 

 it was soon found that instead of a decrease in the bacterial content 

 there was an increase from the electrical stimulation. This was 

 found to be quite constant where the strength of the current was 

 not too great. 



Similar results were obtained with milk, and where static elec- 

 tricity was used a positive charge was found to favor the develop- 

 ment of bacteria to a very considerable extent. Where heavy 

 charges were used the number of organisms decreased very deci- 

 dedly, but feeble electrical currents and small static charges acted 

 as stimuli to bacteria in milk, increasing their number perceptibly. 

 In this connection it is stated that conditions during thunderstorms 

 may accelerate bacterial action by electrical stimulation and thus 

 increase the number of bacteria and incidentally hasten souring. 



As a result of all the experiments in the growing of plants, it 

 was found that when currents of o.i to 0.6 milliampere were used 

 all forms of plant life were stimulated. 



The stimulating effect of weak currents on yeast is shown in 

 the increased amount of carbon dioxide given off by the yeast. 



BENJAMIN MOORE and STENHOUSE WILLIAMS. Influence of Oxygen 

 on the Vitality and Growth of Bacteria. - - (Biochemical 

 Journal, June, vol. V, n. 4). Nature, August 1910, n. 2128, vol. 84, 

 p. 181. 



In the Bio-chemical Journal for June Prof. Benjamin Moore and 

 Dr. Stenhouse Williams detail experiments on the effect of an in- 

 creased percentage of oxygen on the vitality and growth of bac- 

 teria. Of twenty-six organisms tested, two may be termed oxy- 

 phobic. These are the tubercle bacillus, which is not only arrested 

 in growth, but is actually killed by a high percentage of oxygen, 

 and the plague bacillus, which, though not killed, uniformly refused 

 to grow in percentages of oxygen from 60 to 91. The staphylo- 

 coccic group was also adversely affected, but the remainder, inclu- 

 ding the typhoid, dysentery, glander, diphtheria, anthrax, and cho- 

 lera organisms, was unaffected. 



