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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 516. 



years of its history have been crowded with 

 feverish activities which have found their 

 best justification in the results accom- 

 plished. At present the science touches 

 nearly many human interests and sustains 

 manifold and far-reaching relations to the 

 whole body of natural knowledge. It 

 is no matter for surprise that such should 

 be the case with a science that owes its 

 birth to a chemist, that concerns itself with 

 microscopic organisms belonging both to 

 the plant and animal kingdoms, and that 

 extends its ramifying branches into the 

 regions of medicine, hygiene and the in- 

 dustrial arts. 



In several respects the history of bac- 

 teriology might be held to epitomize that 

 of the other natural sciences or of the 

 living organism itself. Advance in com- 

 plexity of structure entails greater com- 

 plexity of relations and adjustment; ma- 

 turity has more extensive connotations than 

 youth. Bacteriology is a relatively youth- 

 ful branch of the stream of knowledge, but 

 in late years it has perceptibly widened its 

 banks. It has even encroached upon cer- 

 tain neighboring sciences. Modern physi- 

 ography uses the term piracy to designate 

 the capture by one stream of that portion 

 of al watershed legitimately belonging to 

 another stream. In the same way, one nat- 

 ural science, owing to peculiarities in its 

 subject matter, in its evolutionary history 

 or in the tools with which it works, may 

 enter upon a piratical career and appro- 

 priate territory which for various reasons 

 has remained unexploited by the science to 

 which topographically it may seem to be- 

 long. This annexation of neighboring fields 

 has been not uncommon among the natural 

 sciences, and bacteriology has not shown 

 itself free from the general tendency. A 

 notorious instance of piratical conduct on 

 the part of bacteriology is the virtual ap- 

 propriation of the whole field of micro- 

 biology. Perhaps most familiar in this 



connection are the discoveries concerning 

 the life histories of various microscopic ani- 

 mal parasites. The tracing out of the rela- 

 tions between parasites and hosts in Texas 

 fever, malaria and dysentery has by no 

 means been exclusively or even largely the 

 work of zoologists. On the contrary, it is 

 well known that much of the most impor- 

 tant work in this direction has been carried 

 out by bacteriologists and that the litera- 

 ture on these topics is chiefly to be found in 

 the technical bacteriological journals. A 

 recent instance of this tendency is the re- 

 newed study of the remarkable protozoa 

 called trypanosoraes, which has in large 

 part been undertaken by bacteriologists and 

 by bacteriological methods. Perhaps the 

 most notable triumph yet accomplished in 

 this field is the successful cultivation of 

 these pathogenic protozoa outside of the 

 animal body, a feat which has been achieved 

 ■ by one of the foremost of American bac- 

 teriologists. The exploitation of zoological 

 territory by bacteriological workers is one 

 of the many instances of successful bor- 

 derland invasion and, like the Louisiana 

 Purchase, illustrates the impotence of ter- 

 ritorial lines to prevent natural expansion. 

 Many reciprocal piratic inroads among the 

 sciences are due to the acquisition by one 

 science of new tools which, when workers 

 become generally acquainted with their use, 

 are found to be applicable to other prob- 

 lems in other fields. Bacteriological tech- 

 nique is one of these efficient tools the pos- 

 session of which conduces to piracy ; it can, 

 however, never be forgotten that bacteriol- 

 ogy itself owes its powerful equipment to a 

 study of spontaneous generation which was 

 undertaken primarily for the interest felt 

 in its philosophical bearings. 



Bacteriology stands in close relation to at 

 least four other more or less defined fields 

 of natural knowledge: to medicine, to hy- 

 giene, to various agricultural and indus- 

 trial operations and pursuits and to biology 



