Report on the Bacteriology of Water. 183 



First Report to the Water Research Committee of the 

 Royal Society, on the present State of our Knowledge 

 concerning the Bacteriology of Water, with especial 

 reference to the Vitality of Pathogenic Schizomycetes in 

 Water. 



By Percy F. Frankland, Ph.D., B.Sc. (Lond.), F.R.S., Professor 

 of Chemistry in University College, Dundee, and Marshall 

 Ward, Sc.D., F.R.S., F.L.S.* Professor of Botany in the Royal 

 Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill. Presented to the 

 President and Council, May 19, 1892. 



Introduction. 



The interest attaching to the presence of micro-organisms in water 

 originated principally in the proof, which has been furnished by 

 medical men, that some zymotic diseases are communicated through 

 drinking water. In the case of two diseases, at any rate, the evi- 

 dence may be regarded as conclusive on the main point, and the 

 communicability of Asiatic cholera and typhoid fever forms one of 

 the cardinal principles of modern sanitary science, which year by 

 year is becoming more widely recognised and generally accepted. 

 The germ theory of zymotic disease, which has become more and 

 more firmly established during each successive decade of the past 

 half century, was naturally soon impressed into the service of those 

 who sought to explain the empirical fact that these particular diseases 

 are frequently communicated by water. It is significant that these 

 views concerning the propagation of cholera and typhoid, and the 

 importance to be, therefore, attached to drinking water in connexion 

 with public health, are mainly English in origin, and were for many 

 years unflinchingly preached and practised by English sanitary 

 authorities, at a time when the germ theory of disease was a specula- 

 tion, and not established as it now is. It is only necessary to read, by 

 the light of our knowledge of to-day, the Sixth Report of the Rivers- 

 Pollution Commissioners (1868), written more than eighteen years 

 ago, to be convinced of the intuitive sagacity and acumen which has 

 been displayed in this country in matters of sanitation. 



The germ theory of disease having thus so early become interwoven 

 with the consideration of potable waters, it is easy to understand 

 with what eager interest the vigorous development in our know- 

 ledge of micro-organisms in general, and of their connexion with 



VOL. Li. 



