The Fundamentals of Bacteriology

Bacteriology as a science is a development of the latter half of the nineteenth century. It may be said to have begun in the decade between 1870 and 1880, due largely to the wid...

Bacteria are considered to belong to the plant kingdom not because of any one character they possess, but because they most nearly resemble organisms which are generally recogni...

The _essential_ structures which may by appropriate means be distinguished in the bacterial cell are _cell wall_ and _cell contents_, technically termed _protoplasm_, cytoplasm....

Though there is apparently a wide variation in the shapes of different bacterial cells, these may all be reduced to _three_ typical _cell forms_. These are: first and simplest,...

It has been stated that bacteria reproduce by transverse division, that is, division across the long axis. Following repeated divisions the new cells may or may not remain attac...

The arrangement of living organisms in groups according to their resemblances and the adoption of _fixed names_ is of the greatest advantage in their scientific study. For anima...

Bacteria are probably the most widely distributed of living organisms. They are found practically everywhere on the surface of the earth. Likewise in all surface waters, in stre...

Most bacteria are very susceptible to changes in the degree of acidity or alkalinity of the medium in which they grow. Some kinds prefer a slightly acid reaction, some a slightl...

The foregoing brief review of the chemical composition of the bacterial cell illustrates the variety of compounds which necessarily occurs, but affords no definite clue as to th...

The physiological activities of motion, reproduction and metabolism within the cell have been discussed in previous chapters. The objects in view in the discussion of the “physi...

Bacteria make use of proteins chiefly as a source of nitrogen, but also as a source of carbon and other elements. Proteins contain nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur an...

The production of organic acids has been sufficiently discussed in preceding chapters. It should be noted that not only these in great variety are produced by bacteria but that...

Most of the physiological activities of bacteria which have been discussed are due to the action of these peculiar substances, so that a knowledge of their properties is essenti...

The discussion of the physiology of bacteria in the preceding chapters has shown that a number of environmental factors must be properly correlated in order that a given organis...

A very large number of chemical substances might be used for destroying bacteria or preventing their growth either through direct injurious action or by the effect of concentrat...

The choice of the above-described agents depends on the conditions. Evidently a barn is not to be disinfected in the same way that a test-tube in the laboratory is sterilized. A...

The study of bacteria may be taken up for the disciplinary and pedagogic value of the study of a science; with the idea of extending the limits of knowledge; or for the purpose...

The way in which culture media shall be used depends on the purpose in view. By far the larger part of bacteriological work is done with cultures in “bacteriological culture tub...

As has been stated, the thorough study of a bacterium depends on first getting it in pure culture. In the early days of bacteriology supposedly pure cultures were obtained by (1...

When an organism has been obtained in pure culture by any of the methods described in the preceding chapter the next step is the study of its morphology as discussed in Chapters...

_A._ Temperature.--The optimum temperature for growth is usually about the temperature of the natural environment and ordinarily one determines merely whether the organism grows...

Animal inoculation has been referred to (1) as a method of assisting in the preparation of pure cultures of pathogenic organisms; (2) as a means of testing the poisonous propert...

Pathogenic Bacteriology treats of the unicellular microörganisms which are responsible for disease conditions, _i.e._, pathological changes in other organisms. Hence not only ar...

I. In or on inanimate objects or material. (_a_) As true saprophytes. (_b_) As facultative saprophytes. (_c_) Though obligate parasites, they exist in a latent state. II. In or...

_A._ =The Skin.=--If the skin is healthy there is no opportunity for bacteria to penetrate it. It is protected not only by the stratified epithelium, but also in various animals...

Immunity, as has already been stated, implies such a condition of the body that pathogenic organisms after they have been introduced are incapable of manifesting themselves, and...

Pasteur and the bacteriologists of his time discovered that bacteria cease to grow in artificial culture media after a time, because of the exhaustion of the food material in so...

The general characteristics of toxins have been described (Chapter XII). It has been stated that they are more or less specific in their action on cells. In order to affect a ce...

Charrin and Rogers appear to have been the first (1889) to observe the clumping together of bacteria (_Pseudomonas pyocyanea_) when mixed with the blood serum of an animal immun...

Before Koch definitely proved bacteria capable of causing disease several physiologists had noted that the red corpuscles of certain animals were destroyed by the blood of other...

It has been mentioned that Metchnikoff, in a publication in 1883, attempted to explain immunity on a purely cellular basis. It has been known since Haeckel’s first observation i...

Dallera, in 1874, and a number of physiologists of that period, observed peculiar skin eruptions following the transfusion of blood, that is, the introduction of foreign protein...