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As regards B. enteritidis sporogenes, this anaerobe is not only typical of excremental
matters, but its cultures are extremely virulent to animals, and Dr. Klein's researches point to its
being causally related to certain cases of acute diarrhcea in the human subject.
There was a manifest advantage in choosing two micro-organisms—one an aerobe and the
other an anaerobe, with the object of counting their numbers first in the crude sewage and afterwards
in the effluent from bacterial coke-beds and B. coli and B. enteritidis sporogenes seemed
to be microbes peculiarly well-fitted for the purpose.
2.—SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE SECOND REPORT.*
The Report is divided into a chemical and bacteriological division.
DIVISION I.—CHEMICAL.
Here Dr. Clowes deals with the chemical and practical side of the question under (1) objects
of the coke-bed experiments; (2) general results obtained ; (3) general conclusions; (4) advantages
of bacterial over chemical treatment; (5) construction and details of the coke-beds; (6) methods
-of working the beds and their condition at the time of writing the Report ; (7) history of each cokebed;
(8) experimental proof of the aeration of the coke-beds; (9) variation in the condition of the
raw sewage, and its effect upon the effluent; (10) comparative purity of clear sewage, bacterial
•effluent and chemical effluent.
DIVISION II.—BACTERIOLOGICAL.
It is this division of the Report which it is now proposed to summarise.
It will be remembered that the First Report dealt with a period extending from the end of
February to the beginning of May, 1898, and with the bacteriological examination of the raw
sewage only—the bacterial coke-beds being at the period referred to in course of construction.
The Second Report carried the enquiry a stage further, since it dealt with the bacteriological
examination of the effluents from the bacterial coke-beds as well as of the raw sewage. The main
portion of the Report treated of a period extending from May 9th to August 9th, 1898. But in
the Addenda A, B, C, D, E, further bacteriological records were given, bringing the work up to the end
of that year. The following summary takes note of the whole of the above period. As the
descriptive matter in the Second Report dealt only with the period from May 9th to August 9th, 1898,
and as the records contained in the Addenda A, B, C, D,E covered a large interval of time (August 9tli
to December 31st, 1898) it will be necessary to collect all the figures together and to summarise the
results as a whole.
It is of advantage first to give the chief results! obtained in the form of tables and then to
make certain comments thereon.
But before doing so, it is desirable to state in a few sentences what the contents of the Second
Report were. It will, of course, be impossible to summarise all the different sections, and for
information under the headings not dealt with in the following pages reference must be made to
the Report itself.
CONTENTS OF SECOND REPORT.
A.—Introduction.
B.—Summary of Contents of First Report
I.—The Biological Treatment of Sewage.
II.—General Results obtained (May 9tii to August 9tii, 1898).
III.—Summary of Results shewn in Table 1.—1. Total number of Bacteria. 2. Number of
Spores of Bacteria. 3. Number of Liquefying Bacteria. 4. Species of Micro-Srganisms.
(a) B. Enteritidis Sporogenes (Klein). (6) B. Coli Communis. (c) Other species of
Bacteria.
IV.—Tables and Diagrams dealing with the Results of the Bacteriological Examination
of the Crude Sewage, of the Effluents from the Coke-beds ; and of the
Effluent from the Chemical Precipitation Works, and of Samples of Thames Water.
V.—Description of some of the Bacteria found in the Crude Sewage, and in the Effluents
from the Coke-beds. 1. B. Coli Communis. 2. B. Mesentericus. (a) B. Mesentericus
E. (b) B. Mesentericus I. 3. Sewage Proteus. 4. B. Frondosus. 5. B. Fusiformis.
f>. B. Subtilissimus. 7. B. Subtilis. Sewage variety A. Sewage variety B. 8. B. Membraneus
Patulus. 9. B. Capillareus.
VI.—Description of Micro-piiotograpiis and Diagrammatic Drawings accompanying the
Report.
VII.—Addenda A, B, C, D, E.—Further Bacteriological Records (August 9th to December
31st, 1898.)
* Bacterial treatment of crude sewage (Second Report.) Experimental intermittent treatment of London
crude sewage in the coke-beds at Crossness. (P. S. King and Son, 2 and 4, Great Smith-street, Westminster, S.W.)
The figures are not strictly comparable with those given in the First Report, because in order to obtain
corresponding samples of the raw sewage and of the effluents from the coke-beds, a somewhat longer interval
elapsed between the time of the collection of the samples of crude sewage and their subsequent examination
than was the case during the earlier portion of the enquiry.