II 



classes. They were started at a moment when access 

 to the teaching of medical bacteriology was difficult 

 everywhere 2 ). From the outset, they were eagerly atten- 

 ded by young doctors; later on, by students as well. 

 When, ten years afterwards, a chair of general pathology 

 was founded, it was practically the chair that was an- 

 nexed to the laboratory and not vice versa. The result 

 of this, and a happy one, was that the teaching of bac- 

 teriology was committed to the hands of the professor 

 of general pathology. This is not, as we know, the 

 case at all universities, medical bacteriology often being 

 entrusted to the professor of hygiene. This remarkable 

 plan originated in Germany. The historical explanation 

 of it must be looked for, no doubt, in the fact that 

 bacteriology, which in Germany had made such an 

 immense progress under the leadership of Rob. Koch, 

 was used as a means of agitation when it was a ques- 

 tion of carrying through the foundation of hygienic 

 institutions at the German universities. It may have 

 been very wise, under the circumstances, to make use 

 of that expedient, but there is no reason why such an 

 arrangement should be adopted in other countries. The 

 professor of hygiene must, of course, be able to under- 

 take bacteriological researches, and every hygienic insti- 

 tution is nowadays to be supplied with a fully furnished 

 bacteriological laboratory. But to combine the teaching 

 of bacteriology with that of hygiene would be as unrea- 

 sonable as to assign the teaching of pathological ana- 

 tomy to the professor of medical jurisprudence because 

 the latter is bound to master the pathological anatomi- 

 cal technique and to have a post-mortem-room at his 

 institution. 



Well then, at this University, owing to special cir- 

 cumstances, the practical instruction in the pathology 



