IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



269 



The following are the results of Miss Nicholas of exam- 

 ination of samples, the second after discarding a few pails- 

 full. The medium used was ordinary agar. 



The Kinkade well is very shallow and the second sample 

 was collected after several barrels of water had been 

 pumped out, therefore the much greater number of bacteria 

 in the second sample may be due to sediment. 



All of the shallow wells examined contained gas-produc- 

 ing germs. The Paxton well produced 30 cc. of gas in the fer- 

 mentation tube, 10 cc. of which was CO^ and 20 cc. CH . The 

 Reed well produced 100 cc. of gas (40 cc. CO, and 60 cc. CH4). 

 The water from the Kinkade well produced a very great 

 amount of gas. 



The Brllei/ Shallow Well. — In conjunction with Dr. 

 Weems and Mr. McKinley on another occasion the writer 

 collected samples of the water at the Briley well, and later 

 Mr. Faurot also collected this water twice. The second 

 time when Mr. Faurot collected these samples we got an 

 unusually large number of germs per cubic centimeter. 

 That collected by the writer on October 17 had 18,000 and 

 that by Mr. Faurot had 6,000. It is worthy of note in this 

 connection that the samples collected by myself on October 

 17 contained 18,000 germs per cc, that in one of the samples 

 collected by Mr. Faurot on October 25, the number of germs 

 had diminished very materially, the largest number found 

 was 6,000. On October 21) the highest number obtained 

 was 125 per cc. 



