PHYSIOLOGY OF BACTERIA 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



(a) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BACTERIA 



Life processes are largely chemical or physical proc- 

 esses, and it would be wasted time and effort to try to 

 understand the very complicated and interlinked actions 

 and reactions, the total of which we call life, unless the 

 best physical and chemical methods were used for their 

 analysis and interpretation. 



There may be processes other than physical and 

 chemical involved in life. Most of those changes brought 

 about by life processes which we, from our human 

 viewpoint, consider most important, namely, the prog- 

 ress of civilization, the development of creative thoughts, 

 cannot as yet be explained by chemistry and physics, 

 and perhaps never can be. Whether there is a soul, an 

 agent independent of the body, in man or animals may 

 ever be an open question. So much is certain, however, 

 that it will not cause any actions contrary to the laws of 

 physics or chemistry; else, its existence would have been 

 established long ago. 



Just as physics is more than mere mathematics, and 

 chemistry cannot be explained altogether by physics, so 

 biology cannot be accounted for exclusively by physical 

 and chemical equations. 



This book deals only with those aspects of biology that 

 can be treated from the physico-chemical viewpoint. 

 Its intention is to give a conception of the life mechanism 

 of the simplest organisms, and no other group of organ- 



