NOTES ON A SOMEWHAT BARE BACILLUS. 



f Reprinted from the Guernsey Advertiser, October 20th, 1900.) 



At the meeting of the Guernsey Society of Natural 

 Science, held on Wednesday evening at the Guille-Alles 

 Library, Mr. W. A. Luff in the chair, Mr. J. B. Nickolls, 

 Public Analyst, F.C.S., M.B.I.P.H., &c, &c, read the 

 following most interesting paper : — 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, — 



From the notice issued by our indefatigable Secretary, 

 I find that I am announced to read a " short paper on a rare 

 and remarkable bacillus that has recently appeared in our 

 midst." 



My remarks on the subject were intended to be merely 

 a few " notes," the result of my own observations, rather 

 than anything like an exhaustive " paper," but without 

 troubling you with a further apology, I will proceed with 

 my subject. 



Some three years ago — in the month of August, 1897, 

 to be more precise — I was requested to make an analysis of 

 a sample of water used for drinking purposes and drawn 

 from a well situated at the rear of a house on the Esplanade. 

 This water had been suspected of being the cause of a 

 curious fungoid or other growth which had suddenly made 

 its appearance upon a variety of cooked food in the larder 

 and the safe. The well was a comparatively shallow one, 

 situated at the bottom of a sloping well-manured and highly- 

 cultivated garden, and within a few feet of a stable. Under 

 these circumstances it was not surprising to find the water 

 " bad " in every sense, and totally unfit for drinking purposes. 

 The use of that water was abandoned, but the food trouble 

 continued unchecked. Water from adjoining premises was 

 then examined ; water from a well contiguous to a fowl-run, 

 and analysis proved this to be just about as foul as the other. 

 This well was also given up, and water from the Water 

 Works used instead, but the trouble still continued. 



