vi PREFACE 



Structural and functional elements are so neatly packaged 

 into cells of such small dimensions. Because many of the 

 anatomical parts of microbial cells were beyond the limits 

 of resolution of the light microscope, little detailed knowl- 

 edge of microbial structure could emerge until the introduc- 

 tion of electron microscopy. It was this coincidence of the 

 development of electron microscopy with the accumulated 

 wealth of biochemical information that paved the way for 

 the investigators of the major structural components of 

 microbial cells. This book, based on the lectures delivered 

 at Rutgers, illustrates the successful application of the tech- 

 niques of biophysics, chemistry, and biochemistry to one 

 facet of microbial anatomy. The development of the 

 studies on microbial walls has been a rapid one and has 

 occurred in a number of laboratories. Thus we have al- 

 ready reached the stage where we can but survey the general 

 field in three lectures. The material in this book, therefore, 

 does not represent a complete record of investigations on 

 microbial walls. It has been selected with the hope that it 

 will give an orientation to the newcomer or interested 

 reader and a more detailed record on several aspects of wall 

 chemistry for the initiated investigator requiring a sum- 

 mary. In a field advancing with some rapidity it is inevi- 

 table that important papers will have appeared in the 

 interim between the lectures and this published account, 

 and it is the constant nightmare of all authors and reviewers 

 that their works will be out of date by the time they are 

 printed. This does not, I hope, negate the usefulness of a 

 summary of events leading to the latest exciting addition 

 to the study of microbial cell walls. 



For my own small part in the development of this field 

 of endeavor I owe much to the broad introduction to micro- 

 biology I received in Australia and the many years of in- 

 terest, stimulation, and encouragement I enjoyed as a visitor 



