BACTERIA IN WATER 8/ 



discovered anaerobe, Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes oi Klein.* 

 This bacillus is credited to be a causal agent in diarrhoea, and 

 has been isolated by Dr. Klein from the intestinal contents 

 of children suffering from severe diarrhoea, and from adults 

 having cholera nostras. It has been readily detected in 

 sewage from various localities, and also in sewage effluents, 

 after sedimentation, precipitation, and filtration. Its bio- 

 logical characters are shortly as follows : It is in thickness 

 somewhat like the bacillus of symptomatic anthrax, thicker 

 and shorter than the bacillus of malignant cedema, and 

 standing therefore between the latter and anthrax itself. It 

 is motile and possesses flagella, but has no threads. It 

 readily forms spores, which develop as a rule near the ends 

 of the rods and are thicker than the bacilli. It is stained by 

 Gram's method. In various media (particularly milk) it 

 produces gas rapidly. It is an anaerobe, and is cultivated 

 in Buchner's tubes. A recent epidemic of diarrhoea affect- 

 ing 144 patients in St. Bartholomew's Hospital was traced 

 to milk in which B. enteritidis was present. 



Sewer Air, Though not of material importance as re- 

 gards bacterial treatment of sewage, this subject calls for 

 some remark. For long it has been known that air polluted 

 by sewage emanations is capable of giving rise to various 

 degrees of ill-health. These chiefly affect two parts of the 

 body ; one is the throat, and the other is the alimentary 

 canal. Irritation and inflammation may be set up in both 

 by sewer air. Such conditions are in all probability pro- 

 duced by a lowering of the resistance and vitality of the 

 tissues, and not by either a conveyance of bacteria in sewer 

 air or any stimulating effect upon bacteria exercised by 

 sewer air. What evidence we have is against such factors. 

 (See p. 105.) 



Several series of investigations have been made into the 



^ Annual Report of the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board, 

 1897-98, p. 210. 



