REPORT ON THE WORK CARRIED OUT IN THE MICRO-BIOLOGICAL
SECTION OF THE KING INSTITUTE OF PREVENTIVE
MEDICINE, GUINDY, FOR THE YEAR 1914.
From January 1st till February 21st Major J. W. Cornwall, I.M.S., acted as
Director, after which Dr. F. M. Gibson, on return from leave, took over and
continued in charge for the remainder of the year.
From January 1st until November 21st Major W. S. Patton, I.M.S., continued
to act as Assistant Director, but on the latter date his services were placed at the
disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army in India, and he reverted to
military duty.
On December 9th, Assistant Surgeon S. Ramakrishnan was appointed as
Temporary Assistant to the Director, and was employed partly in the Vaccine and
partly in the Micro-Biological Section.
Water analysis .—As in the previous year no quarterly or half-yearly routine
analyses were carried out, but a large number of samples were examined in
connection with the experimental filters, and proposed water-supplies, etc.
In June 1914, under G.O. No. 1042 W., dated 21st May 1914, a small
committee consisting of the Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras, the
Sanitary Commissioner for Madras, the Sanitary Engineer to Government and the
Director, the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, was appointed to examine into
the results already obtained with the experimental filters installed at the King
Institute, and to formulate definite problems requiring solution, and the lines of
investigation necessary to solve them. These experimental filters were erected
with a view to settling as to what was the best type of filter construction for
Indian conditions, but the investigations have been interrupted time after time by
the discovery of hitherto unsuspected factors which influence the efficiency of a
filter, under Indian conditions. Until, while working with a Madras Standard
filter, we are able to eliminate these disturbing factors, and to attain such
consistently satisfactory results as are obtained in England by sand filtration, it is
obviously useless to experiment with varying types of substructure. Who would
have supposed for instance, that a heavy fall of rain would, for the time being,
completely disorganise a filter which up to that time had been giving perfectly
good results! Yet this was definitely noticed last year in the case of the Clemesha
pattern filter, and quite clearly, though not to such an extent, in the Madras
Standard pattern filter, this year.
That such should occur just when large quantities of surface pollution are
being washed into the rivers and lakes, and in consequence the water is very
impure, is a fact of very great significance.
The following table shows the volume of work done in connection with water
analysis for the past five years
TABLE I.
Nature of examination.
Number of samples.
1910.
1911.
1912.
1913.
1914.
Chemical analyses . . .
365
429
416
498
277
Bacteriological examinations . . .
509
529
620
634
617
The large fall in the number of chemical analyses this year is explained by the
fact that five-sixths of the samples dealt with were taken in connection with the
experimental filters, that is to say, were samples of Adyar river water. As
filtration does not appreciably affect the chemical qualities of a water and as the
varying chemical features of Adyar river water were very fully known, it was
not necessary to examine the samples chemically.