Practical bacteriology, microbiology and serum therapy (medical and veterinary) : a text book for laboratory use / by A. Besson ; translated and adapted from the fifth French edition by H.J. Hutchens.

  • Besson, Albert, 1868-
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Practical bacteriology, microbiology and serum therapy (medical and veterinary) : a text book for laboratory use / by A. Besson ; translated and adapted from the fifth French edition by H.J. Hutchens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    So important a place does Microbiology now occupy in the medical curriculum that not only are laboratories fully equipped for research and teaching to be found in all medical Schools, but the Student on leaving his School should have at least sufficient knowledge of the subject to carry out for himself the more simple investigations, such, for instance, as the recognition of the tubercle bacillus and the detection of the diphtheria bacillus. The present work has been designed purely as a laboratory guide, the one object constantly in view in its preparation having been to make it a true vade mecurn—a book which would both direct the beginner step by step and, at the same time, afford to the more skilled worker such assistance as would enable him to pursue his researches in a profitable direction. My experience as a Teacher of Microbiology and as a Director of labora- tories has I venture to think given me the qualifications necessary for the task in hand. All matters of theory and all references to original sources have been studiously avoided since adequate information upon these matters is forth- coming in the many excellent Text books of Bacteriology. In the first Part of the book the methods applicable to micro-organisms in general are detailed and while in each chapter a number of methods, all of which have been recommended by various authorities, are described, em- phasis is laid upon those with which I have obtained the most satisfactory results and which I feel may confidently be recommended to the beginner. The second Part is concerned with a description of the methods most suitable to the various different micro-organisms. The Bacteria are described first and then the parasitic Fungi and Protozoa the importance of which, however considerable it now may be, threatens to occupy an even greater place in the Pathology of the future. The third Part which completes the book is devoted to a short account of the methods available for the bacteriological examination of water and air. Much care has been bestowed upon the illustrations, and in order that the figures may be of as much use as possible to the Student in interpreting his own results they were drawn and coloured by myself from my own pre- parations and faithfully represent the appearances which should be obtained if the directions in the text are carefully followed.