PREFACE. 



A thorough course of laboratory instruction in bacter- 

 iology is absolutely essential to the proper education of the 

 •medical student of the present day. The practical knowl- 

 edge thus acquired in the methods of handling bacteria, in 

 the precautions necessary to the prevention of personal 

 infection, and in the methods for the recognition and for 

 the destruction of disease-producing organisms is funda- 

 mental and invaluable. Such information is directly useful 

 as a means of diagnosis; it is necessary to the successful 

 performance of antiseptic operations and is indispensable 

 to the proper execution and understanding of the common 

 hygienic measures for the prevention of communicable 

 diseases. 



It is therefore evident that the course in bacteriology 

 should not be inferior, either in length or in the character of 

 the instruction, to any other laboratory course offered in 

 the medical curriculum. The student should be taught to 

 work, not merely with a few harmless bacteria, but espe- 

 cially with all of the common pathogenic organisms. The 

 exclusion of the latter organisms from a laboratory course 

 on the plea of danger is an admission of weakness in 

 instruction or in supervision. The danger in a laboratory is 

 avoidable, and is not to be compared with that encountered 



