Bacteriology : Its Practical Value to the 

 General Practitioner. 



BY W. WAYNE BABCOCK, M.D., 



Pathologist to the Kensington Hospital for Women; Clinical Pathologist to the 

 Medico-Cbirurg'cal Hospital; Demonstrator of Pathology and Bacteriology 

 in the Medico- Chirurgical College, of Philadelphia. 



To the general practitioner, bacteriology is offering a con- 

 stantly increasing field of usefulness. From its earliest days, this 

 science has suggested a theoretical basis for treatment, while it has 

 developed, especially during more recent years, numerous prod- 

 ucts of practical remedial value. For the most part it has not 

 been difficult for the physician to avail himself of these advances 

 in treatment. The methods founded upon theory have been par- 

 ticularly popular, and it has been only necessary for the micro- 

 organismal nature of an affection to gain credence in order to 

 have innumerable preparations of real or fancied antiseptic value 

 pressed into service. 



From the earlier vague and theoretic means of combating 

 bacterial invasion, we are now emerging upon a more rational 

 therapeusis, founded upon laboratory investigation and endorsed 

 by clinical trial. Although preventive inoculations and the use of 

 toxins and antitoxins have been adopted with some reluctance, 

 their application is not difficult and their employment is now be- 

 coming general. Coincident with the recent advances in etiology, 

 prophylaxis and therapeutics, and scarcely less important, are the 

 strides made in bacteriologic diagnosis and prognosis. And yet, 

 despite the great value of these latter innovations, it is entirely 



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