BACILLUS ENTERITIDIS OF KLEIN 147 
The following table gives the number of samples examined every month, and 
the percentage of enteritidis-like cultures ; about half the samples were ' Railway ' 
and half ' Town ' milks : — 
Number Examined 
Percentage of 
Enteritidis-like 
Cultures 
November, 1899 
>3 
'3 
December ,, 
4 2 
30 
January, 1900 
44 
1 
February „ 
5° 
8 
March 
5 + 
27 
April 
37 
3 5 
May 
5° 
22 
June „ 
+8 
10 
Jury 
41 
■4 
August „ 
47 
1 1 
September ,, 
43 
9 
October „ 
55 
7 
November ,, 
35 
5 
December ,, 
39 
5 
It appears from these figures, probably owing to the more energetic Public 
Health Department, that the enteritidis spores are less frequently present in 
Liverpool than in London milk. I am unable to account for the high percentage 
of enteritidis spores during November and December, 1899. Although the available 
figures are not yet sufficient to establish a periodic cycle of bacillus enteritidis 
sporogenes, nevertheless they appear to indicate that these spores were more common 
in Liverpool milk during March, April, and May, 1900, when the death rate from 
epidemic diarrhoea was low, than in the summer months, when the death rate from 
epidemic diarrhoea was high. As Stewart pointed out, the existence of enteritidis 
spores in milk is not necessarily an indication of sewage pollution, because in Liverpool 
milk, at any rate, there is no relation between the presence of bacillus enteritidis 
sporogenes and of bacillus coli. I think, in many cases, the organism is simply an 
index of dust contamination. 
