Dimensions 8%x6%x8% inches High. This illustrates the Four Bottle West Virginia Sample Case with the lid closed. This is the case adopted as the "West Virginia Public Water Utilities Bacteriological Sample Case." while the outer walls are No. 27 gauge, and the bottom of No. 22. The edges are protected with brass angles that are tightly soldered to the sample box. The bottles, which are "French Squares" 50 cubic centimeters in capacity, are held in individual racks soldered to the ice compartment. This compartment, which varies in capacity according to the number of bottles the container is designed to hold, is removable, thus greatly facilitating the handling of the sample bottles and affording a double protection against the water from the melting ice reaching the cork insulating material. The ice can is provided with a cover that has a flat spring on its top that presses against the cover of the sample box when closed. A flat strip of galvanized iron with a similar spring on one side has been provided to rest on the stoppers of the sample bottles, thus effectively preventing their becoming loosened during transit. While no tests have been made to determine the length of time that the container will maintain the water at a low temperature, samples have been found in a satisfactory condition after 36 hours, if properly iced at the start. Bacteriological Analyses of Public Drinking Supplies. The four bottle container was adopted as the standard bacteriological sample box for the West Virginia Water utilities as required by Rule 19 of the Public Service Commission's Regulations for water utilities. Each container is provided with a brass handle and name plate; the latter stamped with the name and address of the water utility to which it belongs. There are ninety-eight water utilities in the state that are required to submit samples to the Hygienic Laboratory each month. Fourteen of these utilities have entirely failed to comply with the law up to July, 1916. Of the eighty-four water supplies complying with the regulations thirty-five or 45.2 per cent have uniformly been found to be unsafe, and only forty-six or 54.8 per cent were shown to be safe. When one considers that barely one-half of the water supplies of the state are safe for drinking purposes, some idea may be gained of the enormous task that lies before the Division of Sanitary Engineering if it is to see to it that all the public water supplies are made fit for domestic consumption. One important problem that developed in connection with the sub mission of these samples for bacteriological analyses was the devising of a schedule of dates on which the various utilities should collect their samples, that the 93 sets might be evenly distributed throughout the month. The State Hygienic Laboratory has an insufficient force to care for properly the large number of analyses it is called upon to make each month, and if a large number of containers should arrive on any one day, the laboratory would be utterly unable to attend to them all. The schedule as finally prepared gives the date and train on which each water utility shall send its samples to the laboratory, and is so arranged that not more than five containers should be received on any one day, none on Saturday or Sunday. This schedule was prepared by Dr. H. B. Wood. Certification of Railroad Water Supplies. The importance of furnishing the traveling public with safe drinking water cannot be overestimated. The United States Public Health Service has retired that all waters used on trains engaged in interstate traffic shall be of at least a certain degree of purity, and that certificates of this purity shall be furnished twice each year. It is of equal importance that the water used in intrastate traffic be absolutely safe. This is particularly true in West Virginia, as the state has a high typhoid rate and a large floating population, thus offering excellent opportunities for the spread of the disease. With the view of making sure that only safe drinking water is furnished on the passenger coaches in this state, the sources of all water used by the various railroad utilities was ascertained and these will be examined once every six months, and certificates of purity issued. As yet it has been possible, on account of the pressure of other work, to examine only a few of the some hundred sources, but it is hoped that with the advent of another year, arrangements can be made to have all the samples collected at about the same time. Even the few examinations thus far made have shown that the water coolers in many railroad coaches in the state have been filled with dangerously polluted water, and it is scarcely to be doubted that typhoid has at some time been diseminated in this way. Such steps as the division has now adopted should soon eliminate this danger. At a later date it is planned to carry this investigation to the water used by train crews throughout West Virginia. Sanitary Privy. state. While this particular outhouse is an improvement on many in that a pail has been provided for the excrement, together with Cut No. 17 illustrates a type of privy quite common in this a pan of lime or ashes to sprinkle over the faecal matter, it does not prevent the entrance of flies. The Division of Sanitary Engineering has undertaken to design a privy that can be constructed at a small cost, and yet combine all the above advantages. Emergency Chlorinating Plants. The Division of Sanitary Engineering is frequently called upon to erect some sort of a device to disinfect the drinking water when an outbreak of typhoid in a community has been traced to this source. Until recently the division has been obliged to use hypochlorite of lime as the disinfectant. The apparatus for introducing this chemical in known quantities is illustrated by the accompanying sketch. While the device is simple in its construction it is cumbersome and takes at least a full day to erect. Also it is frequently difficult to obtain some of the most needed parts. The barrels are usually whiskey or oil casks, and the former are scarce in this state. The orifice box and water seal are simply abandoned bathroom flush tanks with the floats valve still in working order. It is frequently difficult in small towns to find such tanks, and it has at times even been necessary to use new tanks at a considerable expense. Again the hypochlorite of lime is so corrosive in its action none of the equipment lasts for any length of time, and leaks soon develop with the result that the dose may not be added at a uniform rate. These drawbacks to emergency plants using hypochlorite of lime led me to investigate the possibility of employing liquid chlorine. It appeared at once that even the smallest models of any standard make |