90 ESSAYS ON BACTERIOLOGY. 



the new treatment as applied to several diseases, 

 chiefly to diphtheria. It may be helpful to sum- 

 mai'ize briefly the best present views upon this subject. 

 First,- then, it appears to be generally agreed that 

 diphtheria is a specific disease, due to a specific and 

 recognizable microbe. The methods of recognizing 

 and identifying this microbe have been well worked 

 out, and it has therefore come to be relied upon as the 

 most valuable because most positive means of diag- 

 nosis. The germ of diphtheria is one easily culti- 

 vated, and growing rapidly as it does, under proper 

 conditions, its recognition may be made the basis of 

 diagnosis for practical ptirposes. Diphtheria being a 

 dangerous disease in a community, and its identifica- 

 tion being of so much importance, health boards have 

 in increasing numbers equipped themselves for doing 

 this work in the interest and for the protection of the 

 public health. Already at least two cities in Indiana 

 have well-established departments in which the bac- 

 teriological diagnosis of diphtheria is made, and their 

 results agree with those in other cities in testifying to 

 its value and accuracy. ISTo practicing physician who 

 has once had within his reach and has made use of 

 these aids to accuracy in his work will fail to appre- 

 ciate the comforting assurance of their presence. No 

 physician who has a few times experienced the relief 

 of anxiety and uncertainty in doubtful cases will fail 

 to acknowledge himself and his patients debtors to the 

 science of bacteriology. » 



