88 Perspectives in Microbiology 



basis that the principles of bacterial physiology can be 

 applied to all other organisms? 



The unilateral approach in bacterial physiology courses 

 would be at least understandable if exposure to an inde- 

 pendent course in mold metabolism were available for or 

 required of the bacteriology major. To the best of my 

 knowledge, only a handful of colleges in the United States 

 present course coverage of this subject matter to a degree 

 comparable to the coverage of bacterial metabolism. 



From the flavor of the foregoing, it should not be con- 

 strued that I would advocate pursuit of the fungi with the 

 object of characterizing their activities in chemical sym- 

 bolism. To the contrary, we need more and more to utilize 

 the chemical reactions, to interpret the biology of the 

 fungus in relation to its survival in nature and its response 

 to the environment. In this aspiration, the biochemist re- 

 mains the handyman of the biologist. The patterns unfold- 

 ing in activities of the bacteria and the fungi, and to a 

 lesser degree, in those of the other groups of microorgan- 

 isms, render it not only desirable but perhaps inevitable 

 that an integrated coverage of the various groups of micro- 

 organisms be presented in college courses intended to pro- 

 vide well-rounded training and outlook in microbiology. 

 Possibly one can already detect a trend in that direction. 

 It is significant, perhaps, that nowadays one occasionally 

 sees courses, and even departments, called "microbiology," 

 where once they were named "bacteriology." Instead of 

 the present compartmentalized treatment of these subjects, 

 it would be enormously more advantageous to students and 

 to the progress of research in all areas of microbiology to 

 have a kind of United Nations among microbes; the most 

 effective agency of this organization would be microbial 

 metabolism. 



Whereas, a generation ago, the subject of microbial 

 metabolism might have been an amorphous amalgamation 

 of the component specialities, today we have a powerful 



