8 9 
BACTERIA IN PUBLIC SWIMMING BATHS 
By ERNEST GLYNN, M.A., M.B. Cantab. 
ASSISTANT LECTURER IN PATHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL ; PATHOLOGIST AND ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN 
LIVERPOOL ROYAL INFIRMARY 
AND 
J. C. MATTHEWS, B.A., M.B. Cantab. 
HOLT FELLOW IN PATHOLOGY,. UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL 
IT is a matter of common knowledge that the water in public swimming baths 
becomes turbid towards evening, especially if the number of bathers has been 
great. Two years ago one of us demonstrated that this turbidity was associated 
with a marked increase in the number of micro-organisms present in the water.* 
By kind permission or Mr. W. Roberts, Chairman of the Liverpool Public Baths 
Committee, and of Mr. Court, the Baths Superintendent, we have been able to make 
further observations, and, although they are far from complete, we have ventured to 
publish them, partly because little or no attention has been paid to the flora of 
public swimming baths, in this country, at any rate ; and partly because the results 
of our observations appear to be of some scientific interest, perhaps of practical value- 
Attention was directed to the following points : — 
1. Number of bacteria present in the water at the beginning and end of the 
day. 
2. The source of the bacteria. 
3. The presence of certain pathogenic bacteria. 
4. The possibility of contracting infectious or other diseases from bathing. 
The following method was "adopted. 
A. Samples were collected in sterilized flasks, usually at seven a.m. and 
nine p.m., and plated on agar within two hours, in order to avoid any multiplication 
of the bacteria ; occasionally the samples were kept for three or four hours on ice before 
plating. 
B. The clean water was never collected from the bath until it had been well 
stirred by two or three bathers, in case the bacteria should have gravitated to the 
bottom during the night when the water was still. Care was taken to avoid contamin- 
ation of the sample with solid particles occasionally floating on the surface of the water. 
Let us first consider the condition of the water at six or seven a.m., when the 
bath is opened to the public. Usually the baths examined were emptied every night, 
occasionally on the second or third night. The process of emptying began about nine 
p.m., and was completed at ten p.m. ; the sides and floor of the bath were then washed 
with clean water from a hose, and at about eleven p.m., the fresh water for the next day 
commenced to run in. The temperature of the water throughout the day and night 
in every bath was practically the same, viz., 70 0 F. 
* E. Glynn. Observations upon Bacteria in Public Swimming Baths. Liverpool Medical Chir. Journal, 1902. 
