478 SEDGWICK AXD WINSLOW. — BACILLUS OF TiPHOlD FEVER. 
manner of Pasteur. Coiiteaud ^*°* found but one colony in 19 flasks exposed to A 
nerliuent being carried 
open sea, so that the 
not surprising. He also found but few species present in some analyses of w^ater and 
of soil. In the Nanseu expedition the poverty of the bacterial flora of the air was 
noted. Finally, Dr. Levin (**J of Stockholm made an elaborate study of the subject 
with the Natthorst expedition. In 21,600 liters of air examined at twenty different 
places 3 germs alone were found, all in one sample. In sea water, at the sur- 
face, 11 germs per centimeter occurred, belonging apparently to two characteristic 
species. Fresh water and melted ice and snow gave similar small numbers. Samples 
from considerable depths in the ocean showed somewhat hicrher numbers than were 
o 
obtained at the surface. Finally, tests of the alimentary canals of various Arctic 
animals and birds showed many of them to be completely sterile. 
C. rXPEKniENTS ON THE EFFECT OF FREEZING AND OTHER LOW 
4 
TEMPERATURES UPON THE VIABILITY OF BACTERIA. 
Laboratory experiments have confirmed the conclusion, drawn from the examina- 
tion of natural ice, that freezing is by no means always fatal to germ life. Von 
Frlsch^^^^ froze putrefy 
d reduced the frozen mass to a temperature of 
b 
87* C, and after some hours found that sterilization had not ensued 
Pictet and Young (*^) subjected bouillon cultures of several species to a tempera- 
70 C. for 108 hours, during twenty hours of which time the temperature 
was below -130^ After this treatment B. anthracis and the bacillus of '' charbon 
symptomatique " were altve and virulent; B. subtilis and B. ulna grew readily; half 
the moculations made from the cultures of two species of micrococci grew and half 
Finkler and Prior («) stated that the vibrio described by them could survive 
did 
perature of -4- C. for many days! McKendrick 
coram 
to the 
Bntish Association in 1885, noted that putrcscible liquids were not sterilized by a 
temperature of -84° C. Forster<*') found tliat the phosphorescent bacteria which he 
isolated from fish preserved by cold storage grew vigorously at 0° C. Fischer '«' 
ed o species of bacteria from the water of the harbor at Kiel, and 9 other forms 
the soil, all capable of multiplying at 0°. In the research already cited,'»> Hey- 
roth froze gelatine stick-cultures of various species for from seven to ten days, and 
nen placed them once more under favorable conditions; out of 30 species, thus 
from 
Jlw'ltr;! f :::"'' "'"'°'' ' "' «-- ^^^^ P-^-^^ l-^ their liquefying power. 
»onvai, ,„ 1801, recommended liquefied carbonic acid for use in steriliz- 
'»o organic extracts, and stated that when the treatment is prolonged, especially 
