Ill 
order to see if he has given there any indication of having 
taken into consideration, in his comparative quantitative 
experiments, the possibility of a considerable multiplication 
of the microbia during the period between the collection of 
the water and the application of the test, such multiplication 
being, of course, irrespective of any further contamination 
in the interval. I have no recollection of this point having 
been mentioned in our conversations ; but as Dr. Smith was 
very ill at the time the report was passing through the 
press, our conversations were not exhaustive. In one or 
two cases it is stated in the report that the test was applied 
after the water had been allowed to stand for forty-eight 
hours subsequent to the collection of the sample ; but this 
was apparently done merely in order to test the deposit, the 
clear water being syphoned from the top. Whether Dr. 
Smith took into consideration the self-multiplication of the 
microbia present in the samples during the different inter- 
vals of time required for their transit to his laboratory from 
various distances, I have not been able to make out. Owing 
to the unfortunate circumstances of Dr. Smith’s long illness 
and death before the publication of the report, it is possible 
that matters to which he would have attended under other 
circumstances may have escaped record or notice. The point 
is an interesting one, and as some of the members of the 
Society, or those who assisted him in the experiments, may 
be able to throw further light upon it, it has appeared to me 
desirable to bring the matter under the notice of the Society, 
in order that no fact bearing upon Dr. Smith’s latest inquiry, 
and one which he regarded with great hopefulness, may be 
lost. 
The statements made by Dr. Leone as to the multiplication 
of microbia in very pure waters are remarkable. Taking 
the Maugfall water, which supplies the city of Munich, as a 
type of the purest potable waters, he collected it in vessels 
very carefully sterilised and protected from contamination. 
