SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 193 



contents of the estuarine water at Wardley's does 

 indicate the possibility of a fouling of the mussels under 

 certain circumstances. 



(2) The Effluents from the Fish Refuse Works. 



Cultures were made from the effluent proceeding 

 from the Fish Oil Works with the object of isolating 

 any intestinal bacteria that might be contained therein. 

 Plates inoculated with 1 c.c, 01 c.c. 001 c.c. and 

 00.1 c.c. were made, but all were sterile, Bacillus coli 

 being certainly absent from these quantities of the 

 effluent. 



Similar quantities of the effluent from the Fish 

 Meal Works were also analysed. Plates containing 

 01, 001 and 0001 c.c. were sterile after 48 hours' 

 incubation; but the plate containing 1 c.c. showed a 

 small patch of colonies. This, however, was, I think, due 

 to accidental contamination from a pipette used in 

 inoculation. 



Ordinary domestic sewage may be taken as con- 

 taining from 10,000 to 1,000,000 Bacillus coli per c.c. 

 The effluents in question are no worse than the estuarine 

 water, and so far as this analysis goes they need not be 

 regarded as contributing to the pollution of the mussels 

 by intestinal bacteria. 



These effluents are offensively smelling liquids. As 

 discharged on the beach they were, when I saw them, 

 clear, rather warm, and sometimes oily looking. The 

 smell was not that of putrefying organic matter, but 

 rather suggested aromatic compounds of some kind: 

 phenol, however, was not present in appreciable 

 quantity. Samples were placed in sterile flasks and 

 incubated at ordinary room temperature, but the liquids 

 did not contain any appreciable quantity of putrescible 



