14,-4 PURE CULTURE STUDY OF BACTERIA 



to be discussed here. The chart has been revised from time to time 

 and at present there are two forms — one known as the Standard 

 Descriptive Chart, and the other as the Descriptive Chart for In- 

 struction. The latter is very much simpler than the former. The 

 former is printed on both sides of a 8}/2" x 11" sheet of light cardboard, 

 the latter on a sheet of heavy paper of the same size. 



The object of the Descriptive Chart is to provide a space for record- 

 ing the most important characteristics of a single culture. The 

 Standard Chart is the most complete and is intended especially for 

 advanced work in bacteriology. Unfortunately, however, it does 

 not meet modern research needs at all perfectly because each group 

 of bacteria requires its own set of tests and no form can be drawn up 

 sufficiently detailed to cover all of them. The Chart for Instruction, 

 on the other hand, is so much simpler and contains so much blank 

 space that it sometimes is found to be more satisfactory in research 

 work than the Standard Chart. It is, however, intended primarily 

 for students to use in characterizing cultures furnished them in con- 

 nection with their class work. 



Manual of Methods for Pure Culture Study: The origin of this 

 Manual traces back to a Committee report which was printed in the 

 Journal of Bacteriology in 1918 and was distributed in reprint form 

 by the Committee. This report was only 14 pages long and was 

 concerned only with the methods used in carrying out the determina- 

 tions called for on the Descriptive Chart of those days. The original 

 report was revised once or twice, and in 1923 was finally issued as an 

 independent publication under its present name. The first edition 

 of the Manual was only 48 pages in length. As it was put out in 

 loose-leaf form, however, it was possible to revise it section by sec- 

 tion; and each revision has tended to be longer than the preceding. 

 The result is that the present edition contains about 200 pages. 



The present Manual consists of ten leaflets and each leaflet has its 

 own pagination. The system of page numbering adopted may seem 

 peculiar and has caused some objections as seeming slightly compli- 

 cated. It is, however, the simplest form that can be adopted to 

 avoid confusion in a publication of this kind. Serial paging for the 

 entire Manual is impossible because the leaflets vary in size from one 

 edition to the next. As a result serial paging for each separate leaflet 

 has been adopted, and to avoid confusion in page references made 

 elsewhere the number of the leaflet together with the year of publica- 

 tion is given in small figures before the page number itself; thus II40-8 

 would indicate page 8 of the 1940 edition of Leaflet II, and a reference 

 to it in that form is very exact. 



