172 



Profs. Percy Frankland and Marshall Ward. 



courage the multiplication of any few anthrax bacilli that might still 

 be present in the living state, and which would have escaped detec- 

 tion if the water had been directly plate-cultivated. 



Gartner ( Gartner- Tiemann's 'Untersuch. d. Wassers,' p. 588, 

 "Brunswick, 1889) again introduced anthrax bacilli into unsterilised 

 drinking water at 12° C, and found that they had all disappeared on 

 the sixth day (presumably culture tests only were employed). 



Important experiments of a similar nature had previously been 

 made by Kraus ( £ Archivf. Hygiene,' vol. 6, p. 234) with unsterilised 

 water at 10'5° C. ; on introducing anthrax bacilli free from spores, 

 he found them no longer recognisable by cultivation tests on the fourth 

 day, as shown in the following table : — 



Kraus's Experiments on the Vitality of Sporeless Anthrax in 

 Unsterilised Waters. 



Source of water. 



Number of days after inoculation when 

 examined. 



1 



2 



4 



8 



130 



Number of anthrax bacilli found in 

 water. 



1 c.c. of 

 





1,150 



900 

















1,050 



1,000 















1,180 



850 















A similar result was later obtained by Karlinski (' Archiv f. 

 Hygiene,' 1889, pp. 113—127; ' Centralbl. f. Bakteriol.,' vol. 6, 

 p. 139) in unsterilised driuking water at 8° C. ; the anthrax bacilli 

 free from spores were by him found to have disappeared on the third 

 day. 



Uffelmann (' Centralbl. f. Bakteriol.,' vol. 5, p. 89), on the other 

 hand, introduced sporiferous anthrax into unsterilised drinking water 

 at 12 — 20° C, and found that its vitality was preserved for upwards 

 of three months. 



The only experiments which have been made with British waters 

 are those which were carried out by one of us (Percy Frankland, 

 Society of Chem. Ind., 1887), in which sporiferous anthrax was 

 introduced into sterile distilled water, sterile Grand Junction water 

 (filtered Thames water), and sterile London sewage. In all cases the 

 vitality of the anthrax was preserved for upwards of 61 days, 



