Sessional_Paper_1911 — Page 233

J

163

F

In the Chinese coolies examined in Hongkong the chief organisms were:-

No. 4 B. Grünthal

No. 34 B. Coli Communis

119 Cultures 156

No. 35 B. Sebafferi

No. 71

No. 106

.....

11

5

11

75

39

23

These accounted for 378 out of the 407 examined the remaining 29 cultures being divided up into 9 other varieties. If B. Grünthal and B. Vesiculosus are taken together the results obtained by MacConkey are much the same as here, only here B. Grünthal was the predominating organism and not B. Vesiculosus. B. Coli Communis was found to be slightly more prevalent here even than in MacConkey's results; and in Group III No. 71 was in both cases the most prevalent organism.

Castellani (1910) on the other hand states that he found B. Coli Communis to be extremely rare; it was isolated only 6 times out of 114 cultures. The majority of the organisms be isolated were represented by B. Neapolitanus, B. Acidi Lactici and B. Paraentericus; in other words 61.9% of the organisms isolated belonged to Group III.

These results are entirely different from those obtained either in Hongkong or by MacConkey. The comparative absence of B. Coli Communis is of interest and of practical importance as, if absent in excreta, it would be useless looking for it in water. It would be of interest to know if this comparative absence of B. Coli Communis in the natives of Colombo is also obtained in the natives of Manila where B. Coli Communis is stated to be absent even from the unfiltered water (page 158).

Major Clemesha (1909) working with natives of Madras, considers that the Grünthal Group, the Coscoroba Group and to a less extent the Coli Group undoubtedly form the bulk of Lactose fermenting Bacilli in the dejecta of man and cattle in Madras.

B. Coli Communis is recorded by him in the following percentages from human dejecta :-

Series I Series II Series III

751 Colonies

Series V

Series VI

Series IX

24% 35.3%

.6

•60%

30%

12%

4%

The presence of B. Coli Communis in natives of Madras is therefore not essentially different from the results of MacConkey or the Hongkong results.

11.-The Characters of the Organisms isolated from the water.

Out of 1,226 cultures isolated from the water and examined by the method given on p. 119, 299 were discarded for various reasons as not true members of the Coli Group.

The remaining 927 organisms divided into MacConkey's four Groups give the following results :-

Group I. Group II. Group III. 359 Group IV.

1)

189 cultures

142

"

237

15

20.4%

15.1%

38.8%

25.7%

If to these 927 organisms are added the 478 cultures isolated from the 2nd series and tested on the Group Basis (p. 166) a total of 1,405 cultures is obtained and these grouped give the following results :—

1405 cultures

Group I. Group II. Group III. Group IV.

236 cultures

236

17

505

428

19

16.8%

16.8%

36.0%

30.4%

Table XX shows the characters of the 927 organisms which were fully worked out and Table XXI the Group characters of the 478 organisms worked out only on the Group Basis.