BACTERIOLOGY 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTORY 



Bacteriology or Micro-biology as it might more conveniently and 

 correctly be entitled the scientific study of bacteria and their 

 relatives or of microbes is essentially a new and rapidly 

 advancing science, and has been developed practically within 

 the lifetime of the present generation. This rapid and recent 

 growth is in large part due to a correspondingly rapid develop- 

 ment in certain of the arts and sciences, notably in the science 

 of optics and the art of lens-making, which have given us the 

 modern compound microscope ; whilst chemistry has brought 

 to our aid, amongst other things, its coal-tar products, the 

 aniline dyes, by the use of which the microbes may be stained 

 and rendered more easily visible when looked at through the 

 microscope. To these, and also to the experimental methods 

 of bacteriology itself, especially the cultivation or the growing 

 of bacteria upon artificial media, the inoculation of animals, 

 and similar procedures, most of the wonderful and far-reaching 

 discoveries in medical, commercial, agricultural and other 

 departments of bacteriology have been due. 



Before going farther, we must have some rough idea of what 

 we mean when we speak of "bacteria," "germs," "microbes," 

 " micro-organisms, " and the like. Considerable confusion exists 

 in the use of these terms, and, indeed, they are often used in- 

 discriminately and as synonymous with one another. 



Although, strictly speaking, Bacteriology, the term gener- 

 ally used in this connection, should mean the science which 

 deals with bacteria, and with these alone, yet, by common 

 consent, not only many other closely-allied micro-organisms, 

 but also many which differ from them widely in nature, are now 

 studied and included along with them under the general term 

 Bacteriology. 



The word Bacterium, derived from the Greek bakterion (a 

 diminutive of the Greek word baktron, a staff or stick), was 

 at first applied by microscopists to certain small rod-shaped 

 organisms belonging to the lowest rank of vegetable life. It 

 is now used indiscriminately for the whole group of such 



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