First report to the water research committee of the Royal Society, on the present state of our knowledge concerning the bacteriology of water, with especial reference to the vitality of pathogenic schizomycetes in water

Abstract

The interest attaching to the presence of micro-organisms in water originated principally in the proof, which has been furnished by medical men, that some zymotic diseases are communicated through drinking water. In the case of two diseases, at any rate, the evidence may be regarded as conclusive on the main point, and the communicability of Asiatic cholera and typhoid fever forms one of the cardinal principles of modern sanitary science, which year by year is becoming more widely recognised and generally accepted. The germ theory of zymotic disease, which has become more and more firmly established during each successive decade of the past half century, was naturally soon impressed into the servico of those who sought to explain the empirical fact that these particular diseases are frequently communicated by water.