172 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



contamination from a specific case of the disease. This is 

 in accordance with the well-established fact that in some 

 places enteric fever, once endemic, has disappeared upon 

 the substitution of a pure for a contaminated water-supply, 

 or the provision of adequate bacterial filtration. 



Messrs. Demel and Orlandi* show that Roux and Rodet's 

 statements as to the near relationship of the B. typhosus 

 and the B. coli communis are borne out by the physiological 

 and pathological effects of the metabolic products of the 

 two organisms. Germano and Maurea.f after a very pro- 

 longed investigation, have isolated no less than thirty 

 varieties of typhoid-like bacilli. NicoUe,! after a very 

 careful investigation, could only find the B. coli com^iniunis 

 in a typical case of enteric fever, the blood and spleen 

 being particularly examined. From the above facts, it 

 will be seen that the possible dangers to be derived from 

 the drinking of sewage-polluted waters are greater than 

 previously supposed. 



It is worth recording, however, in connection with the 

 above, that Chantemesse has called attention to the fact 

 that during the typhoid epidemic in Paris in 1894 the 

 soldiers who drank the polluted water supplied to the 

 Menilmontant barracks all escaped typhoid, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that the water was swarming with the colon 

 bacillus. 



Dr. Klein has recently studied§ the B. typhosus and 

 B. coli communis as to their stability as separate species 

 in culture, and in the process of transference from animal 

 to animal. On the one hand, bacilli of both kinds, derived 

 in each instance from human sources, were tested by him 



* Oentralb. fwr Bakteriologie, xvi., p. 246. f Ihid., xv., p. 60. 

 X ' Annales de I'lnstitut Pasteur,' 1895, No. 1. 



§ ' The Twenty-third Annual Eeport of the Local Government. 

 Board,' supplement containing the Keport of the Medical Ofl&oer, p. 459. 



