A Laboratory Guide in Elementary Bacteriology

THIS book is, as stated in the title, a guide for practical laboratory work in elementary bacteriology. The student is taken step by step through the various processes of cleaning and setting up apparatus, sterilisation, preparation of culture media, demonstration of gas production, and detection of certain chemical products, the result of microbial activity. The isolation and cultivation of bacteria, and staining methods, are then considered, and a few exercises are given on the physiological properties of microorganisms, such, for example, as the influence of the reaction of the medium on growth, the effects of desiccation, &c. The student is next introduced to the systematic study of types, first of non-pathogenic and then of the chief pathogenic forms. In this, as well as in the preceding portions of the book, a heading only is given, and to the exercises and practical work, and pages are left blank for the student's own notes, subheadings indicating what he should observe and look for, the facts observed being entered up by the student himself. In addition, outline diagrams are given of culture tubes which are to be filled in with the students' own drawings. In this way the guide becomes a permanent note-book and record of the student's work. Finally, directions are given for the inoculation and post-mortem examination of animals, and a key index of the characters of the more important species concludes the volume. At the end of each section a reference is given to the principal manuals and text-books of bacteriology, such as Abbott's, Chester's, Eyre's, Hewlett's, Muir and Ritchie's, Sternberg's, &c., so that the student may read up the subject. So far as we have been able to observe, the directions given are clear and concise, the exercises judiciously chosen, and the book is singularly free from errors. That a third edition should have been called for is sufficient evidence of the need for such a book, and for those who desire and work from, a laboratory guide, and to lighten the labour of full and complete note taking, it may be strongly recommended.A Laboratory Guide in Elementary Bacteriology.By Dr. William Dodge Frost. Third revised edition. Pp. xiii + 395. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1903.) Price 7s. net.