104 LEO F. RETTGER 



today, filled by persons whose preparation has been sadly inade- 

 quate. How often the newly appointed bacteriologist to a munici- 

 pal or state board of health is a physician whose complete knowl- 

 edge of bacteriology has been acquired in the short period of eight 

 or ten weeks of a regular medical school curriculum ! 



The bacteriologist can not be made in a day. Dr. Moore in 

 his admirable presidential address dwelt upon ihe need of thor- 

 ough training in bacteriology. No wonder that he was dismayed 

 at the failure to evolve a finished product at the end of the regu- 

 lar college course. How can a bacteriologist be made in three 

 or six months, when it takes at least as many years to produce 

 a chemist, a physicist or an electrical engineer? It is my firm 

 conviction that we cause irreparable injury to our science when 

 we recommend for positions men or women who have not had 

 the same advanced training that is as a rule required of the chem- 

 ist, for example. They must be able to do more than to pour 

 gelatin and agar plates and to count colonies. 



The trained bacteriologist of the future will need a deep and 

 broad foundation upon which he is to erect his superstructure. 

 A knowledge of general biology and chemistry will be as essential 

 for him as arithmetic and algebra are for the man who is enter- 

 ing upon a course in higher mathematics. To this must be 

 added elementary physics and a reading knowledge of French 

 and German, at least. 



It is indeed pathetic to see young men or women of undoubted 

 ability and promise apply for admission into the graduate de- 

 partment of a university and to see them denied admission be- 

 cause of inadequate preliminary training. Pathetic, I say, be- 

 cause of the sudden realization that comes over such earnest 

 seekers for the truth, a realization that they are unfit in spite of 

 their natural ability. 



With a general college training covering the above subjects, 

 the student who has chosen bacteriology as his chief field of 

 activity and life work has a wide choice of closely allied sub- 

 jects, as for example biochemistry, protozoology, parasitology, 

 pathology, sanitary chemical analysis, sanitary engineering, and 

 hygiene and public health. He must at no time lose sight of 



