Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-05-07
SURVIVE ONLY A WEEK UNDER
USUAL CONDITIONS.
SEWAGE is DESTRUCTIVE
Organisms Exist Lonoer in pura
"ater-ln Lake Mendoza, for Elk.
ample Life Was Maintained for
Elent to Ten Days-vaIuabIe Ex-
periments.

results OF a series of interesting
Investigations carried on in the
hygienic laboratory at the University
OF Wisconsin show that the vitality of
the germs causing typhoid fever IS
not very great when these germs
md their way either into pure water
or into sewage infected water A
long series of experiments has beeu
conducted with view to determining
the exact length of time in which
the bacillus typhosus survive when
placed in ordinary lake water. and
similar investigation has been made
OF their longevity in polluted waters
AS a result it has been shown that
IN flowing water taken from Lake
Mendoza the organisms live from
eight to ten days, while in water pol
luted by sewage they survive but five
days. This leads to the conclusion
that the typhus bacillus Is killed off
by the presence of the other organ
isms in the sewage infected water,
The tests were made by Professor
H. L. Russell and DR.. G. A. Fuller of
the department of bacteriology of the
University of Wisconsin.
In carrying on these experiments
in the laboratory effort was made to
approximate as closely as possible the
conditions that exist in nature. The
sacs containing the waters infected
with the typhoid bacilli were placed
i'll large glass receptacles through
which there was allowed to flow con-
tinuously a stream of water or
| sewage. Two of this series of ex-
periments were carried on in winter,
one in spring and one in summer,
so that the effect of the varying tenn
perature of water might be tested
Every precaution was taken to make
the experiments as accurate as pos
sible.
The tests in normal water taken
from Lake Mendoza show a striking
agreement as to the length of time
that the typhoid organism survives
| under these conditions. Although in
| a number of experiments there was a
| considerable variation as to the tenn
| perature of the water, and Of the
number of the organisms employed,
| the life of the typhoid germs ranged
through comparatively narrow
period of from eight to ten days
ho ~f ho ID
struction was from eight to ten days,
by far the greater part of the organ
isms disappeared before the end of a
week 1t was often only a few seem
ingly more resistant individual germs
that persisted for an appreciably
longer time than the average.
! Having determined the relation Of
the typhoid organism to such natural
surface waters as those of Lake
Mendoza, the university bacteriOlo-
gists directed their attention to the
length of life of these organisms
when exposed to the influence of
| liquids filed with germ life and other
products. The result of the expert
ments indicate that the typhoid Or
| ganism is unable to retain its vital
| ity as long when immersed in sew
| age as it does when in contact with
lake water. When the bacillus typho-
sus was exposed directly to the ac-
ton of sewage bacteria it survived
from three to five days, less than half
the time that it could live in pure
water The other experiments show
that the cause of the death Of the
typhoid bacillus was the direct action
of the other bacteria present in the
sewage rather than the products of
the sewage bacteria This investiga-
ton seems to warrant the definite
-. n1..r;r,, lon nrorrifrr Of the