258 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 



CHAPTER VIL 



LABORATORY RESEARCH, AND CULTURE OP MICROBES. 



THE processes employed in laboratories for the study 

 and culture of pathogenic microbes are now very 

 complicated, and they have attained a remarkable 

 degree of perfection. In such an elementary work as 

 this we can only give a general idea of these different 

 processes, and for details we must refer our readers to 

 the valuable work by Cornil and Babes, Les Bacteries, 

 in which the technique of laboratories devoted to the 

 histology of microbes is described with great accuracy 

 and clearness. 



Microscopes. The best instruments for the research 

 and study of microbes are those of Zeiss, Jena, and 

 Verick, Paris. Immersion lenses, either for use in 

 water or in other homogeneous liquids, are indispen- 

 sable for the high magnifying power which is necessary 

 in order to see most bacteria distinctly. Condensers, 

 especially those of Abbe', made by Zeiss, are no less 

 useful in order to concentrate the luminous rays on 

 that point of the preparation which is to be specially 

 examined, and to place the bacteria in relief after 



