272 



Mr. A. W. Blyth. 



[Nov. 26, 



volume of sewage was added, and the whole allowed to rest at the 

 ordinary temperature for twenty-four hours, at the end of which 

 time drops of each were weighed out and cultivated in the usual 

 manner. The control was the same sewage diluted with an equal 

 bulk of sterilised water. 



The results were as follows : — 



No. of colonies per gram 

 of the sewage 

 taken. 



Hydroxylamine 50 



Methylamine 180 



Ethylamine 181 



Propylamine 237 



Ammonia 257 



Control 6250 



3. The Action of Disinfectants on Typhoid Excreta. 



Eberth, Klebs, and Gaffky have each described micro-organisms 

 which they consider peculiar to abdominal typhus, i.e., enteric or 

 typhoid fever. Gaffky has specially studied the question, and 

 describes, with great minuteness, the manner of growth of a bacillus 

 which he found in twenty-six out of twenty-eight typhoid bodies 

 (Gaffky, " Zur Oetiologie des Abdominal Typhus." " Mittheilungen 

 aus dem Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte," 2 Band, Berlin, 1884). The 

 bacillus grows in nutrient gelatin, in light brown colonies, which do 

 not liquefy the gelatin ; if a minute portion of one of the colonies be 

 taken up on a needle and transferred to a drop of water for micro- 

 scopic observation, the bacillus is seen to have the power of self-move- 

 ment. If the bacillus is sown on sterlised potatoes, a peculiar sort 

 of pellicle in about forty-eight hours is produced, formed wholly of 

 bacilli. The method of growth on gelatin, on potato, and the 

 power of self-movement, taken together, Gaffky considers to belong 

 to no other bacillus hitherto described. At the ordinary temperature 

 no spores were formed, but they were readily produced when the 

 bacillus was cultivated on potato at a blood heat. 



Gaffky, although seldom failing to find this bacillus in typhoid 

 bodies, could not detect it in the excreta. 



In the study of the action of disinfectants on typhoid excreta, it 

 was necessary to first determine the number of colonies which could 

 be raised by cultivation from a gram of the typhoid matter operated 

 upon, and also search for any distinctive organism. 



From a typical case of typhoid fever, on the tenth day of the 

 disease, a small quantity of the typhoid stool was obtained ; it was 

 very liquid, offensive, of a light brown colour, and free from blood. 

 A portion of this was weighed and diluted with sterilised water, so 



