HISTORY OF BACTERIOLOGY in 



A drop of water from the neglected vase of flowers 

 will often give similar interesting phenomena. 



The modern work upon bacteria was begun and the Work of 

 foundations of the science of Bacteriology were laid Pasteur 

 when Louis Pasteur in France, less than sixty years 

 ago, began to grow and cultivate these dust-plants. 

 Since then the advance in knowledge about them has 

 gone on with ever increasing rapidity. 



If it is possible to increase the power of the micro- 

 scope or to so train the human eye that it may see 

 more than is seen at present, would greater wonders 

 be revealed? Such a possibility is ever before the en- 

 thusiastic student. 



About twenty years after Pasteur, Robert Koch de- Koch , 

 clared that he believed bacteria were the cause of dis- Theory 

 ease and not the effect, as many had thought them to 

 be. He began to grow bacteria on potatoes and in 

 other ways then new, but now common. These are 

 known as "solid cultures." 



This was a great advance toward the discovery of 

 disease germs, because by the differences in their be- 

 havior or growth on different substances it was pos- 

 sible to separate the species. 



. The farmer knows that the same soil is not equally 

 good for corn and melons and that a pine tree will 

 flourish where a willow would die. These are at the 

 other extreme in the plant world from the invisible 

 bacteria, but the microscopic forms have their prefer- 

 ences in food and their favorable and unfavorable 

 conditions, as well as their well-known giant brothers. 



