PART THIRD. 



TECHNOLOGY. 



OWING to their minute size and the difficulties at- 

 tending their study, the Bacteria received but 

 little attention from naturalists prior to the dis- 

 covery by Davaine of the anthrax bacillus (Com- 

 municated to the French Academy of Sciences in 

 1863). 



Since this date, very great progress has been 

 made in 'our knowledge of these minute plants; 

 and this progress has been due, to a consider- 

 able extent, to the labors of physicians rather 

 than to those of botanists, who, as a rule, have 

 been inclined to make light of the importance 

 attached to this and subsequent discoveries re- 

 lating to the presence of parasitic micro-organ- 

 isms in the blood or tissues of man and the lower 

 animals while suffering from certain infectious dis- 

 eases. We are greatly indebted, however, to the 

 German botanists, Cohn and Nageli ; and to the 

 distinguished French chemist Pasteur must be 

 awarded the foremost place among those who have 

 contributed to our knowledge in this direction. 



