228 BACTERIA. 
The old fairy tales are true, after all. Here we have 
good genil, invisibly yoked to our service, making life 
easy and pleasant, and in many ways ministering to our 
comfort and happiness ; or, if we refuse to understand 
and obey good and wholesome law, we find in them the 
greatest scourges which afflict mankind. Like fire, 
they make good servants, but bad masters. 
The extraordinary success which has crowned the la- 
bors of Pasteur, the remarkable work of Koch, Cohn, 
and others, have given a great impulse to the study of 
the pathogenic forms. It is impossible to predict the 
results. Much is hoped for, and it may be that this will 
cause the study of medicine to be placed upon a surer 
and more scientific basis than has heretofore been 
possible. 
NOTES ON A FEW FORMS OF BACTERIA FOUND AT 
VASSAR COLLEGE. 
During a few months of last year, I became much in- 
terested in making a series of experiments with a view 
to seeing what forms of bacteria would naturally de- 
velop in this locality, when culture media were placed 
under proper conditions. My special interest in the 
subject was first awakened while studying at the botan- 
ical gardens in Cambridge, during the summer of 1884. 
Dr. William Trelease had just written his paper upon 
bacteria. At his suggestion and under his direction, I 
then undertook some cultures and learned to recognize 
afew common forms. The present work has been ren- 
dered possible through his kindly encouragement and 
valuable assistance. I have adopted the plans proposed 
by him, and have succeeded in finding nearly all the 
Species mentioned in his paper, together with a few 
other forms, which have puzzled me not a little. 
112 
