BACTERIA. 



of all kinds, especially in times of illness, when neither 

 patients nor nurses have strength or time to see that these 

 are properly removed. This source of danger is so evident, 

 and is so in accordance with what one would expect, that 

 efforts have been made to remove, as far as possible, all 

 organic material which might serve as nutrient material for 

 infective organisms from the soil and ground water, and 

 also to remove as rapidly and as completely as possible not 

 only dejecta, but also the water employed for cleansing hnen, 

 clothing, and utensils " without allowing them to come in 

 contact with the surface of the soil, with wells," with 

 vegetables, and the like. 



Most hygienists are agreed that it is necessary not only 

 to have a pure water supply — ?>., a supply free from all pos- 

 sible contamination, derived from wells so deep, or from 

 reservoirs so far from human habitations, that there is 

 no possibility of contamination by sewage, dejecta, or surface 

 drainage, and so carefully conveyed by conduits and pipes 

 that no such contamination can take place during distribu- 

 tion — but that a water supply should be s'o ample that 

 dirtiness is heavily discounted. With all the improvements 

 that have been made in the drainage system and water 

 supply of Lower Bengal, cholera has only diminished about 

 60 per cent., so that there still remain certain factors that 

 favour the spread of cholera, and every now and again such 

 a spread or outbreak may take place with extreme rapidity, 

 and may involve a very wide area. Cleanliness, however, 

 both general and personal, may be said to be the most 

 important factor in the prophylaxis of cholera. Fliigge, 

 for example, states most emphatically and explicitly that 

 " the average cleanliness of the population has the greatest 

 influence in this respect. The more cleanly the method 

 of handling the sick and the infected clothes, the more care- 

 fully contamination of the soil, of the water, and of various 

 other objects with the dejecta is avoided, the fewer will 

 be the sources of infection. The more carefully the hands 

 are cleansed and the articles of food prepared, the more will 

 the paths of spread from existing sources of infection be 

 diminished. It is evident that in this respect marked dif- 

 ferences must exist between more and less civilized countries ; 

 between new and well-built, and old and cramped cities ; 

 between poor and wealthy neighbourhoods ; between the 



