THE MULTIPLICATION OF MICRO-ORGANISMS 243 



Action of Ozone on Anthrax Spores and Bacilli in Sterilised 

 Distilled Water (Ohlmiiller) 



Ex- 

 posure, 

 Minutes 



Volume of 



Ozonised 

 Air in c.c. 



Amount of 

 Ozone yielded 



by 1 litre of 



air employed 



in Mffr. 



Calculated 



amount of 



Ozone present 



in the air used 



Mgr. 



I Number 



of Microbes 

 in 1 CO. 

 of Water 



Action of Infected Water 

 on Mice 



1. Anthrax Svores 







5 

 10 

 20 

 40 





 2 

 5 



10 



2. Anthrax Bacilli 



Died after 3 days 

 )) J) J) [ 



Still living after 14 days ! 



Died after 4 days 

 Remained living 



The greater resistant power of the spore over the 

 bacillar form is shown very distinctly, for whilst the 

 spores only succumbed after the action of 89*9 mgr. 

 of ozone, the bacilli were destroyed after the use of 

 58'0 mgr. Similar experiments made with the typhoid 

 and cholera bacilli respectively showed that these or- 

 ganisms were still more sensitive, 19*5 mgr. being 

 sufficient in the case of the former, and between 16*7 

 and 19*5 mgr. for the latter. 



When, however, the ozone is introduced into waters 

 containing organic matter, its action on the bacteria 

 present is very considerably modified ; thus, in the ex- 

 periments in the table on p. 244 the organic matter was 

 imparted to the water in the form of sheep-serum. 



With an increasing amount of serum, therefore, the 

 action of the ozone becomes markedly diminished, and 

 it is evident that it is the presence of this organic 

 matter which has retarded its influence, the ozone exer- 

 cising its oxidising action first on the inanimate mate- 



R 2 



