112 



Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



Journal of 

 Applied Microscopy. 



Issued Monthly from the Publication Department 



of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., 



Rochester, N. Y. 



L. B. ELLIOTT, Editor. 



Address all communications to 

 PUBLICATION DEPARTMENT, 



Bausch A Lomb Optical Co., Rochester, X. Y. 



One Dollar per Y'ear. To Foreign Countries, 81.25 

 per Year. 



gnUred at the Post-office, Rochester, N.T., aa second-class matter. 



SEPTEMBER, 1898. 



The series of articles by Dr. P. G. Novy, 

 entitled " Laboratory Methods in Bacter- 

 iology," will be found particularly help- 

 ful to those physicians who desire to 

 apply the microscope, in their daily prac- 

 tice, to those cases in which microscopi- 

 cal examination furnishes the most reli- 

 able means of diagnosis, and will in 

 addition be an excellent outline for teach- 

 ing these methods to those who are pre- 

 paring themselves to become physicians. 

 The simplicity and directness of the 

 methods described commends them par- 

 ticularly to those whose object is rapid 

 and accurate work. 



BOOK REVIEW. 



Laboratory Directions for Beginners in 

 Bacteriology, by Veranus A. Moore, B. 

 S., M. D., Professor of Comparative 

 Pathology and Bacteriology and of Meat 

 Inspection, N. Y. State Veterinary Col- 

 lege, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

 Published by the author. Press of Andrus 

 & Church, Ithaca, N. Y. 1898. pp. 89. 



In view of the fact that courses of in- 

 struction in the elements of bacteriology 

 have regularly been given during the 

 last few years in nearly all the colleges, 

 universities, and medical schools in this 

 country, it is surprising that no thor- 

 oughly good set of laboratory directions 

 adapted to the capacity of beginning 

 students has hitherto been published. 

 Numerous text-books, manuals, "lecture 

 notes," and treatises of various kinds, 

 dealing with bacteriology in general or 

 with special branches of the subject, 

 have appeared, but none confined entire- 

 ly to elementary technique. There are 

 dotibtless, then, many teachers who will 

 be glad that Dr. Moore has finally put 

 the admirable "laboratory directions," 

 used by his classes at Cornell Universitj', 

 into a form which makes them available 

 for others. 



This compact little pamphlet contains 

 sixty elementary exercises, the perform- 

 ance of which will require of the earnest 

 student about one hundred and fifty 

 hours of actual laboratory work. In addi- 

 tion to the exercises themselves, the book 

 contains a judiciously selected list of text 

 and reference books, and of periodical 

 literature, a page of "laboratory maxims" 

 or precautions which the student must 

 incorporate in his mental structure so 

 thoroughly that he follows them uncon- 

 sciously, and a list of apparatus and ma- 

 terial for both general and individual 

 use. That the exercises are eminently 

 practical, may be seen from the follow- 

 ing topics of study selected from the 

 table of contents: cleaning glassware; 

 plugging test-tubes and flasks and ster- 

 ilizing the glassware; preparation of 

 bouillon; inoculating tubes of bouillon, 

 agar and gelatin; examination of cul- 

 tures; making and staining cover-glass 

 preparations, and formulae for staining 

 solutions; examination of plate cultures 

 and making sub-cultures from colonies; 

 identifying genera among bacteria; 

 studying and staining spores; staining 

 the flagella of motile bacteria; staining 

 tubercle bacteria (bacilli); making cul- 

 tures of anaerobic bacteria; identifying 

 genera of bacteria and obtaining pure 

 cultures from colonies, and so on. 



Besides these general exercises, whose 

 object is to teach the student proper 

 technique, there are many others devoted 

 to the special study of so^me of the more 

 important forms, including the Bacillus 

 coli communis, B. cholerae suis, and B. 

 typhosus, the bacterium (the author fol- 

 lows Migula's classification) of tuber- 

 culosis, of glanders, of anthrax, and of 

 diphtheria. The Widal serum test is 

 tried, bacteria are isolated from the ani- 

 mal tissues and identified, pus and 

 exudates examined, the efficiency of dis- 

 infectants tested, milk pasteurized and 

 sterilized, and qualitative examinations 

 of water made. No animal experiments 

 to be performed by the beginner are 

 given. The student is constantly referred 

 to standard literature for descriptions 

 of the various operations involved in his 

 work and the morphological and bio- 

 logical characteristics of the organisms 

 studied. Hg thus becomes acquainted 

 with many authorities besides the one 

 who prepared his manual, and learns 

 what has already been accomplished in 

 the investigation of different bactria. 



The directions are in all cases clearly 

 and briefly stated, and the student who 

 has conscientiously performed these 

 exercises may consider himself well 

 equipped for advanced work. 



Charles Wright Dodge. 

 Rochester, N. Y. 



