PHARMACEUTICAL BACTERIOLOGY 



CHAPTER I 

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



The science of bacteriology fs not new, but its introduction into 

 pharmacy is of comparatively recent date. 



About 1896 a few of the colleges of pharmacy in the United States gave 

 optional courses of instruction in bacteriology. At the present time nearly 

 all of the leading colleges of pharmacy give instruction in bacteriology and 

 in many of these institutions the courses are compulsory, forming a part of 

 the prescribed curriculum, represented by lectures and laboratory work. 

 In some universities the students of pharmacy receive their bacteriological 

 instruction in the department of medicine or perhaps dentistry. However, 

 pharmaceutical bacteriology and medical bacteriology are quite distinct. 

 Medical students study this subject from the standpoint of pathology and 

 disease, matters which concern the pharmacist but little. Students of 

 pharmacy do not have the time necessary to devote themselves extensively 

 to special laboratory methods and technic, nor is it advisable that they 

 should receive extensive laboratory instruction in pathology. Pharma- 

 ceutical bacteriology must be suitably adapted to the practice of pharmacy. 



The pharmacist should have a knowledge of general bacteriology, in 

 order that he may realize what important relationships bacteria bear to 

 human activities in general, to medical practice more especially, and in 

 order that he may comprehend quite fully the significance of these minute 

 organisms in pharmaceutical practice. He should know what pharma- 

 ceutical preparations and what medicinal substances are hkely to be 

 attacked by bacteria, and what changes they are capable of producing in 

 such substances. He should have some knowledge of the effects that 

 bacterially deteriorated substances may have when introduced into the 

 human organism. He should be quahfied to sterilize pharmaceuticals as 

 is now required in the U. S. P. and in the pharmacopoeias of several 

 foreign countries as Austria, Italy, and Belgium. He should know some- 



