258 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 
CHAPTER VIL 
LABORATORY RESEARCH, AND CULTURE. OF MICROBES. 
THE processes employed in laboratories for the study 
and culture of pathogenic microbes are now very 
complicated, and they have attained a remarkable 
degree of perfection. In such an elementary work as 
this we can only give a general idea of these different 
processes, and for details we must refer our readers to 
the valuable work by Cornil and Babés, Les Bactéries, 
in which the technique of laboratories devoted to the 
histology of microbes is described with great accuracy 
and clearness. 
Microscopes.—The best instruments for the research 
and study of microbes are those of Zeiss, Jena, and 
Vérick, Paris. Immersion lenses, either for use in 
water or in other homogeneous liquids, are indispen- 
sable for the high magnifying power which is necessary 
in order to see most bacteria distinctly. Condensers, 
especially those of Abbé, made by Zeiss, are no less 
useful in order to concentrate the luminous rays on 
that point of the preparation which is to be specially 
examined, and to place the bacteria in relief after 
