PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN DIFFERENT WATERS 305 



viving varieties, however, underwent extensive multi- 

 plication. 



These results are of much interest, if we remember 

 that the cholera organism has been found capable of 

 living for long periods in brackish water, such as the 

 harbour water at Marseilles. Still more recently this 

 has been proved in the case of the Hamburg water 

 supply, which was found on analysis,^ during the cholera 

 epidemic of 1892, to be distinctly brackish in character. 

 The following table shows the composition of this water 

 as revealed by chemical analysis : — 



Sample of Hamhttrg Water received from Mr. Ernest Hart, 

 October 21, 1892 



Results of Analysis expressed in parts per 100,000 



Oxygen consumed by organic matter, as measured by reduction of a 

 solution of permanganate acting for three hours in the cold = '366. 



The water was very turbid, depositing a quantity of brown suspended 

 matter. 



This high percentage of salt is due to the waste 

 liquors which are discharged from the Stassfurt salt 

 works and other factories into the Elbe and its tribu- 

 taries. In Magdeburg, where filtered Elbe water is 

 used, the percentage of salt was so high during Decem- 

 ber 1892 that the water was not only unpalatable but 

 unusable.'^ Hueppe,^ who made a special study of the 



^ Percy Frankland, British Medical Journal, 1893, p. 251, 



^ * Ueber den Einfiuss stark salzhaltigen Elbwassers auf die Ent- 



wickelungvon Cholerabacillen,' Aufirecht, Centralhlatt filr BaMeriologie ^ 



vol. xiii., 1893, p. 353. 



^ Die Choleraepidemic in HaTnhurg, 1892, p. 20. Berlin, 1893. 



