8
REPORT OF THE KING INSTITUTE, GUINDY
It is apparent that there is a reasonably
close agreement between the two antigens
particularly when our Kahn findings were
negative which is what we here rely most on
in the Kahn test as explained in Part I
where a general comparison of our Kahn and
Wassermann results is given.
16. Cultivation of B. granulosis in
Trachoma—Dr. R. Sanjiva Rao .—At Col.
Wright's request several attempts were made
to grow this, the causal organism according
to Noguchi. Various organisms were grown
but not the organism described by Noguchi.
17. The complement fixation reaction
in smallpox—Dr. Venkatraman.— This
reaction was demonstrated in convalescents
from smallpox. A paper has been sent for
publication.
18. Immunity to yellow fever.— A
hundred sera from different types of indivi
- d u a l s w e r e o b t a i n e d b y D r . V e n k a t r a m a n
and sent to Dr. Sawyer of the Rockefellor
Foundation, New York, to assist him in
finding what protection against yellow fever
is shown by the sera of various races.
19. The testing of Dr. Madsen's anti
- c h o l e r a s e r u m a g a i n s t l o c a l s t r a i n s — D r .
S. R. Pandit.—Eighty strains were tested, of
which 37 agglutinated to full or almost full
titre, 36 to ½t i t r e , a n d s e v e n t o ¼
t i t r e .
20. Researches on cholera bacterioph
- a g e — D r s . C . G . P a n d i t , R . S a n j i v a R a o a n d
S. R. Pandit.—In addition to the papers
noted in the list of publications, the
following has been sent for publication :—
" T h e I n f l u e n c e o f H . I o n C o n c e n t r a t i o n o n .
Cholera Bacteriophage.— A preliminary
note."
21. Researches at the Experimental
Filters at Guindy and Kilpauk.—From
December 1930 to April 1932 the filters were
under the control of the Government Water
and Sewage Purification Committee and from
April 1932 to the present time have been
jointly under the Sanitary Engineer and
myself. Mr. T. N. S. Raghavachari has
always been closely associated with me in
this work.
(1) October 1931—March 1932 at Kil
-pauk. The experiments referred to in my last
report were continued. It was found that—
(a) Variations in the depth of the
collecting layers in secondary submerged fine
sand. filters working at 8 inches vertical per
hour ( following primary coarse percolating
filters at 16 inches) did not materially alter
the quality of the effluent.
(b) The effluent from all these secondary
semi rapid filters were definitely superior to
the control slow sand filters at four inches
which was not preceded by a percolator.
(c) The duration of runs in these secon
-dary filters was longer than in the control.
(2) May and June 1932 at Kilpauk.
—Rapid filtration through a mechanical filter
followed. by sprinkling over a fine sand non
- s u b m e r g e d f i l t e r w a s t r i e d a t K i l p a u k . I t
was found that the secondary filter rapidly
clogged on the surface.
(3) July—September at Kilpauk. The
following percolators were compared:—
(a) " Standard" with 3' medium on 3'
of coarse material.
(b) With 2' of medium on 2' of coarse
material.
(c) With 1' of medium on 1' of coarse
material.
(d) Two stage percolators through two
successive percolators as in (c) above.
The results were that the single standard
percolator ( a ) and the two stage percolators
(d) were practically equally good and were
distinctly better than the others (b) and (c ).
(4) September 1931—April 1932 at
Guindy. The value of Sholinghur stones
and of blast furnace slag as percolating
material was compared. The effluents
appeared to be about the same but the
Sholinghur stone gave a thick growth of
algae—mainly Scytonema, on the surface.
The reasons for this difference are probably
physical or chemical or both. Sholinghur
stone is rough and contains a large propor
-tion of lime.
(5) April to July at Guindy. Some
preliminary experiments in intermittent
percolation were done to find the best form of
intermittent percolation as it was hoped that
in this way the aeration would be better. An
automatic bucket tipping system was found
not to be so good as a syphon supplying a
sprinkler which was automatically cut off at
intervals.
(6) July to September 1932 at Guindy.
An intermittent sprinkling percolator was
compared with an ordinary continuous
sprinkling percolator. The results so far
show no particular difference.
22. Survey of the flora of water-supplies
in Madras.—This was an inquiry under my
charge that was financed by the Indian Re
- s e a r c h F u n d A s s o c i a t i o n . A b o t a n i s t M r .
S. A. Rafay, M.sc., was engaged. He made
a thorough survey of the algae and other
flora of representative protected. water-sup
- p l i e s . T h o s e s e l e c t e d w e r e a t M a d r a s ,
Guindy, Trichinopoly, Kodaikanal, Erode,
Cocanada and Masulipatam. In addition to
the survey the dose of copper sulphate re
-quired for various forms of algae was deter
- m i n e d , a l s o t h e c o m p a r a t i v e a m o u n t o f
organic matter that the commoner forms add
to water.
23. Copper sulphating of the Red Hills
Lake.—One result of Mr. Rafay's work was
to show that the algae most abundant in the
Red Hills Lake were killed by a compara
- t i v e l y s m a l l d o s e o f c o p p e r . A c c o r d i n g l y , i n
July I advised the Madras Corporation that