New Britain herald., 1930-05-14
BOWERS OFFERS
 ANNUAL REPORT
Tells of Work and Needs Of
 Municipal Laboratory

The importance of complete labor
 atory equipment and of having phy-
 sicians avail themselves Of the sery- ices of this agency in the health de- partment, is stressed by Chester E.
 Bowers, city bacteriologist, in his fifth annual report, filed today.
 The report follows:
 II have the honor to submit, here with, a report of the work carried out in the laboratory during the year April 1, 1929 to March 31, 1880: Cooperation Appreciated
 "The accom- panying report repre- scnts the fifth annual account which ! 1t has been my privilege to submit 10 your office, and I wish to state that 1t is a pleasure to be associated with a group who are so coopera- tive and interested in the work of the laboratory. This interest and cooperation has manifest itself on many occasions and is highly grati- i flying to the writer. l feel that the | last five years have been a period of accom- plishment. during which time the work of this division of the de- partment has increased in the num- Der of examinations carried out as we'll as in it's scope. I look into the future with the aim in mind that
 this laboratory shall be second to
 none in it's service to d community with regards 10 both quality and di- versity.
 ''In observing the statistical sec tion of this report, it will be noted that a change has taken place in it's form. It was felt that more in formation would be available than has been the case in other years. Also. a list of the type and amount
 of biologics distributed to persons
 who, in the opinion of the attend ing physician, are unable to pay for
 these various protective materials, is
 found in the report for the first time.
 An increase over any of the previous five years is noted in the number of
 milk, water, sputum ana diphtherid
 fNaminatjors, %hile. with the cXcep- ton Of the new procedures, the others have remained approximately the same. These figures show that
 there can be no doubt in the rcaliza
 ton that there is an increasing de mand upon the services which the ] laboratory affords.
 Work Has Increased
 During the course of the last year several new procedures were undertaken. When an initial culture 1 was received. with an accompanying sWab, an examination was made to detect the presence of hemolytic treptococci. At the same time 6 di-
 rect preparation was made from the swab for the organisms responsible for NinCent's Angina and diphtheria The efficacy Of this latter procedure was strikingly illustrated in at least two instances. 4 culture outfit was received from suspected case of diphtheria, and a positive report was given the physician in the course of
 a few minutes, the necessary amount of antitoXin was administered, and , the life of the child saved: q delay Of 12 to J hours, OCCasiOned by the necessary period for culture incuba-
 ton, would probably have resulted in q fatality since the organism was highly virulent. In another instance, d sWab was received from an ap- parent diphtheritiC throat, but upon direct examination the microorSan- isms of Vincents Angina were found | nrJl Io7 7csf f,r have been missed in the culture. Ii must be said, however, that many physicians failed to take advantage Of this service, as evidenced by the
 fact that many failed to return the
 sWab with the culture. even though q special request wds made tO this
 effect by a notation on the slip en-
 closed with each outfit. In addition
 to he above two new procedures. the
 microscopic examination Of milk was
 instituted. This was begun in order to increase the information regard
 ing samples of milk with unsatsfac-
 tory bacteria counts, since a, far amount 6f accuracy as 10 the cause for the abnormal count IS obtained
 hy determining the, types Of or sanlsms present. This examination
 has proved it's worth and will be continued. During the spring. sum-
 mer and fall of last year, when the
 water in the two reservoirs contain
 cd much suspended matter, plank
 ton examinations were made to dc
 term1ne Its nature. Tho value and wisdom of thls procedure was con-
 splcuouSly demonstrated i'll one out
 standing instance, when a plankton examination of q pond on one of the watersheds revealed enormous num-
 bers Of crustaceae. Subsequently, this
 pond was drained by the water de-
 partment and the plankton ill the reservoir steadily decreased.
 Extensions Planned
 "One other new laboratory proced-
 ure was begun but for various req
 sons was discontinued for the time
 being; this was the yirulence test for
 determining the toXigenicity Of sus-