A new and comparatively rapid method for the detection of liquefying bacteria

Abstract

The results obtained by Feldstein and Weil 1 with Ostwald's viscosimeter in an investigation of the interaction of ferment and anti-ferment suggested to the writer that this apparatus might be of service for the early detection of the liquefying propensities of those bacteria, which under the methods commonly employed, may not reveal this function for one to four weeks. The identification of Bacillus coli in the bacteriological examination of water requires several tests, all of which may be completed within four days, with the exception of that for the action of the bacillus in question on gelatin which calls for a fourteen-day incubation at 20° C. It is generally agreed, among sanitarians, that a shortening of the period of this test is highly desirable, but, although a number of expedients have been suggested, none have been found sufficiently simple and reliable to warrant adoption.