FEBE0AEY 9, 1900.] 



SCmNGE. 



225 



Bacteriology applied to the Canning and Preserv- 

 ing of Food Products. By Edward W. Duck- 

 wall. Baltimore, The Trade. 1899. Pp. 

 xi + 111. 17 colored plates. 7 figures in 

 text. Price, $5.00. 



There is great need of a good manual of 

 bacteriology in its applications to the food-pre- 

 serving industries. The arts of refrigeration 

 and sterilizing have probably done nearly as 

 much as has improved transportation towards 

 abating that unfortunate state of aifairs de- 

 scribed by Macaulay in which, owing to bad 

 roads, it was no uncommon thing in England, 

 in the seventeenth century, for the fruits of the 

 earth to rot in one place, when only a score of 

 miles away people were sufiFering from a scar- 

 city of the very food which was spoiling al- 

 most within their reach. The author of this 

 ' Bacteriology' is to be commended, therefore, 

 for his recognition of this need and for his evi- 

 dent desire to meet it. The announcement of 

 the work, however, aroused apprehension when 

 it stated that ' ' After some unavoidably long 

 delays, due to the nature of the work which 

 of necessity must be minutely coi'rect and ex- 

 act * * * the book you have been waiting for 

 * * * is now ready * * * This work, handsomely 

 bound in leather, and printed on heavy paper, 

 contains 24 microscopical views of the living 

 germs found in canned goods in their natural 

 color, and just as they appear to the eye under 

 the cover glass. The whole work is written 

 with the express purpose of enlightening and 

 teaching canned-goods packers and preservers 

 of food-products the highest and most scientific 

 method of handling all kinds of foods." It 

 was noti encouraging to be thus informed that 

 we were to see ' views of the living germs * * * 

 inj their natural color,' and the appearance of 

 the work itself has not been reassuring. A 

 careful examination leads to the conclusion 

 that it has been hastily and even carelessly pre- 

 pared ; that it is full of errors both of substance 

 and form ; and that the author, while enthu- 

 siastic in his appreciation of the importance of 

 bacteriology to his favorite industries, is not 

 himself a trained bacteriologist, but only an 

 amateur filled with zeal rather than knowledge. 

 If, as stated in the announcement, " the whole 

 work is written with the express purpose of en- 



lightening and teaching," it must be frankly 

 said that it is not a success, and that there is 

 danger that it shall darken rather than illumi- 

 nate understanding among those for whom it 

 was prepared. A few citations will suffice. 



In describing certain microscopic observations 

 upon sour tomatoes, the author says on page 2 : 

 "I found quite a number of small round 

 globules, which at that time I was unable to 

 understand. They seemed to be motionless, 

 except a slight quivering which is termed 

 Brownian motion. There were small rods and 

 little fine dots sometimes alone, sometimes in 

 pairs, and looked like ants. There were also 

 small forms barely perceptible and one or two 

 specimens of a very large germ. The view 

 giveu in the accompanying plate is just as it 

 was taken.'' The 'view' referred to shows 

 some yeast-like bodies, bacilli and spherules, 

 but the yeast cell walls are colored blue, and 

 the contents of the yeast cells are a mixture of 

 blue dots and red lines. Passing over a multi- 

 tude of ill-digested and more or less muddy 

 statements, drawn apparently from various au- 

 thors, but rarely quoted with precision and 

 seldom if ever attributed to the proper source, 

 we may notice one of the more surprising state- 

 ments in regard to the physiology of bacteria 

 (p. 13) : " Sometimes an acid is generated which 

 will kill them, and that acid may be due to 

 their own action. The condition will become 

 favorable, too, when the organisms have per- 

 formed their work." Of the butyric acid bac- 

 teria the author says (p. 20): "They are so 

 small in this dried-up form that we can almost 

 conceive of them being able to pass through the 

 juice without becoming wet." And again, on 

 p. 39, " * * * the flavor which is imparted to 

 the beer and wine and the peculiar flavor of 

 cheese and butter we know is due to the 

 products of the butyric ferment, amylobacter." 

 The serious blunder made in this statement ap- 

 pears in another place (p. 7): "The butyric 

 ferment * * * is so useful in ripening cheese 

 and making butter that this form is cultivated 

 and employed in some of the best creameries." 



In regard to Bacillus prodigiosus we find some 

 equally astounding statements (p. 23): "This 

 is the organism which gives the odor of herring 

 brine or fish to putrefying substances, and is 



