TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 985 
during the first six months of the year, and in one other, and probably two, during 
the first eight months of the year, several hundreds of cases of post-scarlatinal 
diphtheria had been treated without the occurrence of a single death, the early 
diagnosis and the serum treatment combined bringing about this satisfactory 
result. Dr. Woodhead proceeded to say that bacteriological laboratories were 
hampered by want of funds, and were thus prevented from attaining their full 
value to the community. Where assistance had been given from public authori- 
ties, as in the case of the Royal Commission on tuberculosis, valuable results had 
been achieved. Taking the laboratories of the University College, Liverpool, and 
others, such as Owens College, Manchester, was not the cry there, ‘Oh, that they 
had funds with which they might assist or endow the men they had trained, and 
who they knew were capable of turning out really good work?’ On the other 
hand, public health authorities were dependent in many respects upon the work of 
such laboratories. Had not the time arrived for the two sets of authorities to 
agree on some concerted line of action? Bacteriological laboratories existed for 
the public good ; scientific men used them for the benetit of the community, but 
the community had not realised the immense possibilities of the work. He 
suggested that County and City Councils should become patrons of research, as 
they had in many cases become patrons of teaching, For a certain sum per 
annuum, sufficient to cover expenses and pay salaries, they should have the right, 
through their medical officers, official veterinary surgeons, or other officials or 
committees, to submit for bacteriological examination material from hospitals, food 
stuffs, milk, water, oysters, the carcasses of, or discharges from, animals suffering 
from infectious diseases ; in fact, to call in for consultation the director and obtain 
from him reports on any subject in which bacteriological examination might be 
deemed necessary. He would go even further than this, as he maintained that in 
the present state of the antitoxine question, taking that as an example of the work 
that had been done for the benefit of the community, it was absolutely necessary that 
addition to large central laboratories which should be devoted to the testing of the 
various antitoxic serums offered for sale, there should be facilities in all bacterio- 
logical laboratories for the examination of any of the serums that had already been 
distributed. This opened up a very large question, but it was one which had to 
be faced, and the sooner that this was recognised the better for all concerned. 
5. Bacteria and Food. By A. A. Kantuack, ID. 
The author stated that—(1) The quantitative bacteriological analysis is inade- 
quate, since sound food frequently, if not generally, contains as many micro- 
organisms as suspected or condemned food. This is well illustrated by the results 
obtained from an examination of milk, sandwiches, oysters, and ice-creams. (2) 
The qualitative examination of food is also of comparatively little value, since in 
sound food all the species of bacteria may be found which occur in suspected or 
in unsound food. Two organisms which have been specially singled out as proof 
against the soundness or integrity of food are the Bacteriwm coli commune and 
roteus forms, The significance of these microbes is more fully discussed, and the 
view that the Bacterium coli implies feecal or sewage contamination is assailed. 
These two organisms occur in food, because their distribution is almost ubiquitous. 
The Bacterwm coli is present in the intestines and in feces because it is ubiquitous, 
and it is illogical to assume that its presence outside the digestive track signifies 
direct fecal or filth contamination. (8) Lastly, the question of obligatory and 
facultative symbiosis is touched upon, and the question of adaptation between man 
and bacteria is raised. Many plants do not thrive in sterile surroundings; it is 
possible that Pasteur’s opinion, expressed in 1885, that animals would do badly 
without the assistance of bacteria, may prove to be correct. 
It is well that we should know the bacterial flora of good and unsuspected food, 
and become familiarised with the idea that many articles of food generally 
consumed teem with bacteria, described by many bacteriologista as characteristic 
of fecal or decomposing matter. 
1896. 38 
