BACTERIOLOGY AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER SCIENCES 105 



the disciplinary value of this or that subject, but his main in- 

 terest should be in those channels which will aid him materially 

 in his mastery of bacteriology as a real science, and in its many 

 important relationships. 



Bacteriology differs from all other sciences. Its technique 

 and methods of experimentation and control are its own. It 

 has its own problems. Yet like other sciences, and even to a 

 greater degree, it must borrow from, and give to, other fields of 

 study. Its relations and applications to the various industries, 

 to hygiene, medicine, etc., are many; but at the very foundation 

 its principles are as thoroughly scientific as those of any other 

 branch of knowledge. Coulter has said that what determines a 

 subject as a real science is not only the subject matter itself 

 but also the purpose with which it is pursued. 



To study bacteria as the ornithologist does birds, or the geolo- 

 gist, rock formation — in other words, to learn nature's secret in 

 so far as it is revealed by this large group of living organisms — 

 is indeed as truly a scientific inquiry as the most profound in- 

 vestigation into the structure of the protein molecule. Nor 

 need such a study be limited to organisms which are of no in- 

 terest to the student of medicine. The general student of bac- 

 teriology is just as much entitled to a knowledge of the typhoid 

 bacillus in its relation to environment and natural habitat as 

 he is to a full understanding of the characters of Bacillus subtilis, 

 what, its common places of residence are, and what its economic 

 role may be. 



Bacteriology has too wide a range of activity and influence to 

 confine it to the usual Medical School curriculum ; and like physics, 

 geology and biochemistry, it requires an academic or university 

 atmosphere. To those who are in quest of scientific pursuits it 

 presents many problems of profound interest, as for example 

 those of biological classification, variation, cell growth and me- 

 tabolism, the response of microorganisms to stimuli, enzyme 

 action, organic synthesis and decay, etc. In fact the very 

 problems of life's origin and of death belong as much to the realm 

 of bacteriology as to any other science. There is no necessity 

 of dwelling here on its many practical applications, which need 

 not be any the less scientific. 



