A private journal in Egypt from May 1894 to May 1895 / by D. Harvey Attfield.

  • Attfield, D. Harvey (Donald Harvey), 1866-
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A private journal in Egypt from May 1894 to May 1895 / by D. Harvey Attfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Examining this table, we find there is very little difference in the proportional decrease of bacteria, whether sterilised air be driven through the fluid or not. Secondly, in this series some very interesting ocular evidence of the purification that was going on was noticed —namely, the water in the A bottles became quite bright and clear, while the water in the B bottles became thicker and more turbid. Professor von Pettenkofer, to whom I showed these bottles, was particularly struck by this point. Thirdly, in this last series the presence of infusoria seemed to have a more marked effect than in the foregoing experiments. For, in ten days, a water containing 3,000,000 bacteria per cubic centimetre decreased in bacterial con- tents to a little over 13,000, while the water containing no infusoria not only gave no decrease in numbers, but rose in bacterial contents from 700 per c.c to 121,500 in the same time, namely ten days. From all of these experiments it would seem that infusoria have some powerful influence in the getting rid of bacteria, and, possibly, so aiding in the 'self-purification ' of water. FEINTED BY BrOTTISWOODH AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON