User:CastWider/Alexander Cruikshank Houston

Alexander Cruikshank Houston Sir Alexander Cruikshank Houston FRS (1865-1933) was a microbiologist who played a major role in ensuring that towns and cities of Victorian Britain disposed of their sewage safely and had clean drinking water supplies.

Education
Houston was born in Mysore, India in 1865. He studied medicine and public health at the University of Edinburgh, graduating D.Sc. in 1892 and being awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Alison Prize in Public Health and Forensic Medicine.

Studies of lead contamination of drinking water supplies
Houston investigated periodic outbreaks of lead poisoning. At this time lead was used in the construction of water piping and Houston showed not only that the release of lead was due to the effects of acid on the pipes but that the acid itself was produced by bacterial action in the peat-rich areas of the water source.

Bacteriologist to the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal
With Rubert Boyce. Harriette Chick appointed assistant in 1902.



Use of b. coli as fecal indicator
Controversy with Edward Klein (microbiologist) over significance of b. coli in shellfish

Lincoln typhoid outbreak
Houston was responsible for controlling the 1905 outbreak of typhoid in the city of Lincoln. This involved the first continuous use of chlorination of a water supply for human consumption.