350 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



upon agar, gelatin, potato, and in broth, and occasionally in milk, aie 

 considered sufficient for purposes of identification, especially as we are 

 told in the preface that the book is written in the hope that it " may 

 prove useful to those who, having a general knowledge of bacteriology, 

 seek precise details." The illustrations in this section, the majority 

 of which are in colours, are all good, and a certain novelty is hers 

 introduced in that most of the cultivations are represented in Freu- 

 denreich's flasks, instead of the test-tubes we are accustomed to see. 



The fourth section is devoted ta the applications of bacteriology to 

 practical hygiene, and in the first chapter, which deals with the bacterial 

 flora of the air analytically and statistically, the information is full and 

 satisfying ; on the other hand, those portions dealing with the bacterio- 

 logical examination of water and soil are inadequate and insufficient. 

 But one method, and that an unsatisfactory and unreliable one, is de- 

 scribed for the isolation of the B. coli and B. typhosus from drinking- 

 water, whilst the method of enumerating the micro-organisms present 

 per cubic centimetre of a water sample appears to us as needlessly 

 complicated and moreover open to numerous fallacies. Food-stuffs 

 generally are not even touched upon, and no methods whatever are 

 described for the bacteriological examination of milk and milk products. 



The most valuable feature of the book is undoubtedly the excellent 

 and extensive bibliography which is arranged in footnotes throughout 

 the volume. The type and paper are good, and a well-arranged index 

 renders the work of reference easy. 



Bibliography. 



Chester, F. D. — A Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. 



Macmillan, London and. New York, 1901, vi. and 401 pp. 



* i «g») » 



