Micro-organisms in water : their significance, identification and removal, together with an account of the bacteriological methods employed in their investigaion, specially designed for the use of those connected with the sanitary aspects of water-supply / by Percy Frankland and Mrs. Percy Frankland.

  • Frankland, Percy, 1858-1946.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Micro-organisms in water : their significance, identification and removal, together with an account of the bacteriological methods employed in their investigaion, specially designed for the use of those connected with the sanitary aspects of water-supply / by Percy Frankland and Mrs. Percy Frankland. 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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    enunciated by Liebig was completely broken down by the classical researches of Pasteur, by whom it was shown that the processes of fermentation and putre- faction were due, not to decomposing organic matter, but to living organisms, and that living organisms were also certainly the cause of some, and probably of all, zymotic diseases. The presence of organic matter in water was thus deprived of much of its direct import, the chief interest still attaching to it being that it might serve as an indication of the possible presence of living organisms endowed with virulent properties, whilst the interest attaching to the presence of micro-organisms in water was further greatly enhanced by the proof which was furnished by medical men that some zymotic diseases are undoubtedly communicated by drinking water. In the case of two diseases, at any rate, the evidence may be regarded as conclusive on the main point, and the communicability of Asiatic cholera and typhoid fever by water forms one of the cardinal principles of modern sanitary science, which year by year is becoming more widely recognised and more generally accepted. The germ theory of zymotic disease, which has gained with each successive decade of the past half-century a firmer hold on enlightened public opinion, was naturally soon impressed into the service of those who sought to explain the empirical fact that these particular diseases are frequently com- municated by water. Having thus become so early interwoven with the consideration of potable waters, it is easy to under- stand how the acceptance of this germ theory of disease