g BACTERIOLOGY : 



probable that bacteriology has been of far greater service to the 

 practitioner in the line of treatment than in diagnosis. The 

 scratch of the vaccine lancet or the thrust of the antitoxin needle 

 requires neither erudition nor great technical skill, while in- 

 dulgent manufacturers beg to supply the practitioner with more 

 convenient and refined products. On the other hand, unfortun- 

 ately, the methods of diagnosis have not only required laboratory 

 training but also laboratory apparatus. 



These difficulties are being largely overcome in the medical 

 centers by the establishment of municipal laboratories, but in the 

 more remote districts the general practitioner is left, as usual, 

 self-dependent. There is, moreover, a prevalent impression that 

 the general practitioner requires but little knowledge of bacteri- 

 ology. This needs correction. The specialist is a man who, by 

 exceptional proficiency in a single branch, is exempted from a 

 thorough knowledge of general medicine. Serving in a single 

 field, he exacts service from his confreres in all others, including 

 that of skilled laboratory workers. The true position of the 

 general practitioner is, naturally, quite the reverse, and with the 

 knowledge that "diagnosis is treatment," bacteriology must be far 

 from the least of 'his many accomplishments. He may therefore 

 rejoice in the fact that some of the most important of bacteri- 

 ologic methods now require but simple apparatus, are capable of 

 rapid performance and demand no exceptional skill. Given a 

 good microscope, which may now be considered an essential part 

 of the practitioner's outfit, a very moderate additional expense 

 will provide the essential equipment for many of the very impor- 

 tant diagnostic tests. Indeed, it is now possible without any aid 



