361 



NOTICES OF RECENT BOOKS. 



Traite de Bacteriologie pure et appliquee a la Medicine et a 

 I'Hygiene. By P. Miqnel and R. Cambier. 11 x 7^ in. 

 XV. + 1,059 pages. 224 figures (many coloured) in the 

 text. Paris, 1902: C. Naud. Price 45 francs. 



This is one of those " monumental " works, in the best sense of 

 the term, which it is almost hopeless to review in anything 

 approaching an adequate manner. The authors, who are respec- 

 tively the director and sub-director of the Bacteriological 

 Laboratory at Paris, have indeed co-operated to some purpose 

 in the production of this book, and they have rendered an 

 immense service to all students of bacteriology by the careful way 

 in which they have brought together and arranged the enormous 

 number of facts relating to the subject, and especially by their 

 very full treatment of bacteriology in relation to hygiene. 



Starting with the morphology of bacteria, and such facts as are 

 known about their polymorphism and internal structure, we are 

 led, in the course of the first of the four parts into which the 

 book is divided, to the consideration of their biological activities, 

 their reactions to various physical and chemical agents, their 

 artificial culture, and the cultivation media. Three chapters are 

 also appended to this part dealing with experiments upon animals, 

 the preparation of bacteria as microscopic objects, and microscopi- 

 cal manipulation. 



The second and third parts, devoted to detailed accounts of the 

 various pathogenetic, fermentation, and colour-producing bacteria, 

 are exceedingly well done, and necessarily occupy a very large 

 amount of space. In the case of the better known forms, such as 

 the bacilli of tuberculosis, of anthrax, of diphtheria, etc., the 

 very large amount of information is collected luider various 

 headings — such as habitat, etiology, morphology, methods of culti- 

 vating and staining, toxic properties, experimental inoculation. 



