A manual of bacteriology, clinical and applied / by R. Tanner Hewlett.

  • Hewlett, R. Tanner (Richard Tanner), 1865-1940.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A manual of bacteriology, clinical and applied / by R. Tanner Hewlett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    intestinal tract in many Arctic animals—^the polar bear, reindeer, seal, eider duck, etc.—^is generally sterile, and in these instances, therefore, bacteria are not required for normal nutrition. Commercially, micro-organisms are of the utmost importance. Without them there would be no fermen- tation, and the wine, beer, and indigo industries, the ripening of cheese and tobacco, and many Uke processes would be non-existent. From a financial aspect also micro-organisms cannot be ignored, for many of the so- called diseases of beer and wine, which often occasion great loss, are due to the entrance of adventitious forms, while the silk industry and sheep farming in France were once threatened with extinction owing to the ravages of pebrine and of anthrax respectively, but through the genius of Pasteur were restored to their former prosperity. There is no need to emphasise the importance of micro- organisms from a medical and hygienic point of view, but the fact may be recalled that sixty years ago the mortahty after operations was very high, and that 40 per cent, of these deaths were caused by pyaemia, septicaemia, and hospital gangrene, conditions which are due to the entrance of micro-organisms, and which are now almost preventable, thanks to the antiseptic system introduced by Lord Lister. The theory of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis is intimately connected with the study of bacteria. The putrefaction of animal and vegetable fluids even after boihng, and the growth in them of minute hving forms, were held by many to be a sure proof of the development of hfe from inanimate matter, of the spontaneous genera- tion of the hving from the non-hving. A succession of investigators, however, showed (1) that if the fluids be boiled sufficiently long, and be then sealed up so as to prevent the access of air, they do not undergo putre-