ON BACTE11I0I.0GY IN ITS RELATIONS TO CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 441 



Bacteriology in its Relations to Chertiical Science. — By Percy 

 Frankland, Ph.D., B.Sc. (Lond.), F.R.8., Professor of Che- 

 niistry in University College, Dundee, St. Andreius University. 



[Oixiered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso.'] 



In science as in politics there are certain territories which, whilst unable 

 to fully assert their own independence, are yet so jealously watcbed by 

 their powerful neighbours that deliberate annexation by any one of these 

 is impossible. Such semi-independent states usually become successively 

 subject to the influence of their more powerful neighbours, each of which 

 is anxious to acquire an ascendency in their councils. 



In science such a semi-independent state is bacteriology, of hardly 

 sufficient importance to stand by itself, but surrounded as it is by its 

 great neighbours Botany, Medicine, and Chemistry, to each of which in 

 part it owes its present prominent position, both in the scientific and 

 unscientific worlds. 



Originally an offshoot of Botany, from which also in its early infancy 

 it received such powerful support through the memorable ministrations 

 •of Cohn, of Naegeli, and of Brefeld, but although thus under obligation 

 to the parent science, the greatest impulse given to the study of bacteria 

 will always be associated with Chemistry in the person of M. Pasteur, 

 whilst there can be no doubt that by far the greater part of oar more 

 recent knowledge concerning these micro-organisms has been acquired 

 through the indefatigable labours of medical men, so many of whom have 

 been fired by the brilliant discoveries of Koch, MetchnikofT, and Behring. 



In these bacteriological investigations, however, the medical man has 

 been constantly brought more and more into the domain of Chemistry, 

 so that, starting with phenomena which he at first regarded from a 

 purely biological, i.e., a more or less superficial and empirical, point of 

 view, he has by more profound study in many cases reached the chemical, 

 physical, and mechanical foundations on which all biological phenomena 

 jnust of necessity rest. 



As, therefore, the history and development of bacteriology are so 

 intimately connected with Chemistry, and as it is to chemical science that 

 we must ultimately look for the elucidation of innumerable bacterio- 

 logical phenomena, it is only natural that our President should have 

 ■desired to see this subject brought before this Section. It is, however, with 

 ■extreme diffidence and hesitation that I have undertaken at his request 

 to introduce this discussion to-day, as from the great breadth of the 

 subject, with its numerous ramifications into other sciences, the task is in 

 many respects peculiarly arduous and beset with extraordinary peril. I 

 will, however, at once state that I have no intention of burdening you 

 with a detailed survey of the present position of bacteriology, but that it 

 is only my purpose to refer to some matters which have recently been 

 attracting the attention of investigators, and which may possibly interest 

 the members of the Chemical Section. 



Methods. — What may be called modern bacteriology commences with 

 the introdiiction, now some twelve years ago, of the systematic methods 

 of obtaining pure cultivations of micro-organisms ; for although a number 



