612 APPLICATION OF METHODS OP BACTERIOLOGY 



once or is intermittent, so that even in the case of exposed 

 streams there are periods when no specifically dangerous 

 contamination may be in operation. As stated above 

 attention is commonly called to the water when the disease, 

 presumably caused by' its use, is fully developed, and this 

 is often days or weeks after the pollution of the stream really 

 occurred. By an analysis made at this time one could 

 scarcely hope to detect the specific organisms that had caused 

 the disease, especially in water from flowing streams. The 

 organisms sought for may have be6n present in the water 

 and may have infected the users, and yet ha,ve disappeared 

 by the time the sample taken for analysis was collected. 



When present in polluted waters pathogenic bacteria are 

 always vastly in the minority. Were they constantly 

 present in large numbers infection among the users of such 

 waters would be more frequent and more widespread than 

 is commonly the case. They may be present in a water- 

 supply in small numbers; they may even be in the sample 

 supplied for analysis, and yet escape detection if only the 

 ordinary direct plate method of isolation be used. 



From these considerations it is obvious that before 

 attempts are made to isolate the various species directly 

 from a suspicious sample of water it- is advisable to subject 

 it to some method of treatment that will aid in separating 

 the few specific pathogenic from the numerous common 

 saprophytic species. For this purpose numerous methods 

 have been devised. The most useful of these aim to favor 

 the rapid multiplication of pathogenic forms that may be 

 present and to suppress or check the growth of the ordinary 

 water saprophytes. 



Attention has been called to the fact that when exposed 

 to the body-temperature many of the ordinary water- 



