PREFACE 



THERE does not exist, so far as the author knows, in the English 

 language, any text-book on Pathogenic Microorganisms, written 

 especially for the use of veterinary students and practitioners, nor 

 are there many such books in any language. In fact, the only work 

 of this kind with which the author has been familiar in the past is 

 by Professor Th. Kitt, Bakterienkunde und Pathologische Mikro- 

 scopie fur Thierarzte und Studierende der Thier Medizin. While 

 lecturing and conducting the practical courses in pathology and 

 bacteriology during the last few years in the Chicago Veterinary 

 College, the author has been often approached by students with the 

 request to furnish them with a manifold summary of the lectures and 

 laboratory talks on the use of the different stains, culture methods, 

 animal inoculations, etc. It was first during the course of 1909-10 

 that the author acceded to this demand and furnished to the students 

 a mimeographed summary of the work in these departments. The 

 result was satisfactory both to teacher and students, and the author, 

 therefore, concluded to prepare a systematic text-book covering the 

 needs of veterinary students and practitioners, with illustrations 

 wherever desirable. He feels confident that such a publication will 

 be of assistance both to the teachers of bacteriology in veterinary 

 schools and to their students, and hopes that the book will find an 

 interested circle of readers ana consultants among veterinary practi- 

 tioners. Many of these have been students when bacteriology was 

 very insufficiently taught in most of the veterinary schools of our 

 country, and now, when the importance of this subject has been so 

 well recognized both in human and in veterinary medicine, they 

 cannot help but feel the necessity of getting an elementary knowledge 

 of the theory and practice of dealing with pathogenic microorganisms. 

 In the consideration of the infectious diseases of animals most impor- 

 tant in veterinary practice, the morbid anatomy and histopathology 

 has also been fully covered in the following pages. It has been the 

 constant endeavor of the author to be explicit and to introduce and 

 develop the subject in such a manner that the book might be used for 

 self-instruction by any reader who has already gained a moderate 

 elementary knowledge of biology. 



While the book is primarily intended for veterinary students and 

 practitioners, it is hoped that it will also be of use to the medical student 



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