NA TURE 



48 1 



THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1895. 



MODERN BACTERIOLOGY. 



Lehrbuch der Bakteriologischen Untersuckung und 

 Diagnostik. By Dr. Ludwig Heim. Crown Svo. 

 Pp. 528. (Stuttgart]: Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, 

 1S94.) 



THE writer of this volume takes care to leave us in no 

 doubt as to its purpose. We are told in the preface, 

 " Fiirden Praktiker ist dieses Buch geschrieben." Again, 

 " Ein Lehrer und ein Fiihrer soil dies Buch sein." Even 

 the unfortunate student, who, in spite of attending a 

 practical course on bacteriology, has failed to carry 

 away an adequate knowledge of his subject, is to turn 

 to this book for consolation, where " he may yet arrive 

 by its assistance at his goal, providing he follow step 

 by step and point by point the instructions which it 

 contains." 



But after a careful perusal of this bulky octavo volume, 

 we find ourselves unable to agree with the author's 

 estimate of his book. It contains a mass of facts, a 

 bewildering maze of detail through which we think no 

 student would have the patience to thread his way, much 

 less the student who has failed in spite of passing through 

 a course of practical instruction. Possibly Dr. Heim knows 

 too much, or is too generous in giving his knowledge 

 away. A little more reticence would have not only made 

 his book less unwieldy in dimensions, but the whole 

 treatment of the subject would have gained in simplicity. 

 The excessive love of minute detail is characteristic of 

 most German text-books, but we do not think the follow- 

 ing example of it will easily be surpassed : " Smokers 

 must put their cigars or cigar-ends so down that the 

 burning part rests on the table, the mouth-piece remain- 

 ing free. Eating must not under any circumstances be 

 carried on in the laboratory. The moistening ot the 

 fingers in the mouth is to be rigidly avoided. Gum libels 

 must only be wetted with water." We can only say that 

 if the student approaches his subject with as little feeling 

 for it as the necessity of these instructions implies, he 

 will, we predict, never do much, however often he may 

 read through Dr. Heim's volume ! 



The work is divided into three parts — bacteriological 

 manipulations, including microscopic investigations; the 

 preparation of culture media, and experiments on animals. 

 The latter section is given in greater detail than in most 

 text-books, and is very clearly described. Secondly, the 

 morphological and other characteristics of bacteria, con- 

 taining an admirable though brief account of the subject 

 of immunity and the latest developments of serum thera- 

 peutics. Thirdly, the diagnosis of bacteria in disease, as 

 well as their demonstration in our surroundings. The 

 information imparted is, in nearly all cases, gathered from 

 tlje most recent publications in Germany ; but on con- 

 sulting the list of journals referred to in the text, the 

 only foreign publication considered worthy of notice is 

 the Annates de I'Institut Pasteur, English periodicals 

 being completely ignored, as well as the excellent Annali 

 deW Istituto d'Igiene Sperimentale, published in Rome, 

 and the official reports, published in St. Petersburg, of 

 NO. 1325, VOL. 51] 



the work carried out in the Imperial Institute of Experi- 

 mental Medicine. 



This accounts for the omission of all reference to 

 Palermo's most interesting experiments on the attenua- 

 tion of the pathogenic properties of the cholera bacillus 

 through exposure to sunshine. In the section describ- 

 ing the methods which may be adopted for reducing and 

 increasing the virulence of particular bacteria, mention 

 is made of Arloing's isolated investigation on the attenua- 

 tion of the disease-producing powers of the anthrax 

 bacillus through three hours' insolation ; but the fact is 

 passed over, that Palermo succeeded in reducing cholera 

 bacilli to the condition of vaccine through the action of 

 sunshine, so that guinea-pigs, when inoculated first with 

 insolated cholera bacilli, and then with ordinary virulent 

 cholera bacilli, instead of dying, as usual, in about 

 eighteen hours, remained alive. 



The survey of the present state of our knowledge on 

 the question of immunity is, perhaps, the most interest- 

 ing and best-written portion of the book. Theoretical 

 considerations of the subject are kept in abeyance, and 

 prominence is only given to the practical outcome of 

 the investigations which have been made. The results 

 of Roux's application of serum in the treatment of diph- 

 theria in the Pans hospitals appeared too recently to 

 admit of incorporation here. In the section on the pro- 

 duction of spores, the author throws doubt on Roux's 

 method for obtaining anthrax bacilli permanently de- 

 prived of their power of producing spores, so-called 

 asporogene anthrax. He states that he has not been 

 able to succeed in procuring such a race of anthrax 

 bacilli, although he has made numerous attempts with 

 the utmost regard to Roux's recipe. The method de- 

 vised by Phisalix is preferred, which consists in pro- 

 longed exposure of anthrax cultures to a temperature 

 of from 30° to 42° C. ; but this device only answers 

 as long as the bacilli are kept in ordinary cul- 

 ture media, for even when introduced into broth con- 

 taining a fraction of guinea-pig's blood, they are at once 

 sufficiently revived to produce spores. 



In describing the capacity for multiplication possessed 

 by bacteria, an interesting experiment is cited, which 

 we do not remember having seen elsewhere, showing 

 that 149 cholera bacilli kept at 37° C. had within three 

 hours increased to as many as 96,000, and that the 

 minimum time occupied by these bacilli in the produc- 

 tion of a new generation was twenty minutes. This 

 involves, however, the assumption that in the process of 

 multiplication from every individual cell two new ones 

 are started, never more or less. 



The concluding portion of the volume, which deals 

 with bacteriological diagnosis, and occupies close upon 

 200 pages, is helpfully illustrated by photographic plates 

 of many pathogenic micro-organisms. In this section, 

 in speaking of the vexed question of the microbic origin 

 of scarlet fever. Dr. Heim considers that the cause of this 

 disease has not yet been discovered, and that the 

 streptococci which have been found by various observers 

 must be regarded as a secondary and not primary 

 infection ; in his own words, " man muss sich wohl hiiten 

 dabei die Grundkrankheit zu iibersehen." According to 

 Doehle, scarlet fever may be with more likelihood 

 ascribed to protozoa; and this authority is of opinion. 



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