A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



of its work, the Institute of Hygiene differs in no es- 

 sential respect from the Pasteur Institute and other 

 laboratories of bacteriology. The same general rou- 

 tine of work pertains: the patient cultivation of the 

 minute organisms in various mediums, their careful 

 staining by special processes, and their investigation 

 under the microscope mark the work of the bacteriol- 

 ogist everywhere. Many details of the special methods 

 of culture or treatment originated here with Professor 

 Koch, but such matters are never kept secret in science, 

 so one may see them practised quite as generally and 

 as efficiently in other laboratories as in this one. In- 

 deed, it may frankly be admitted that, aside from its 

 historical associations with the pioneer work in bacteri- 

 ology, which will always make it memorable, there is 

 nothing about the bacteriological laboratory here to 

 give it distinction over hundreds of similar ones else- 

 where; while in point of technical equipment, as al- 

 ready noted, it is remarkable rather for what it lacks 

 than for what it presents. 



The department of bacteriology, however, is only 

 one of several important features of the institute. One 

 has but to ascend another flight of stairs to pass out of 

 the sphere of the microbe and enter a department where 

 attention is directed to quite another field. We have 

 now come to what may be considered the laboratory 

 of hygiene proper, since here the investigations have 

 to do directly with the functionings of the human 

 body in their relations to the every-day environment. 

 Here again one is struck with the meagre equipment 

 with which important results may be attained by pa- 

 tient and skilled investigators. In only one room does 



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