University of Virginia Library

BACTERIOLOGY.

     

Professor Tuttle,	Mr. Baker,
Dr. Davis,	Mr. Gordon,
Dr. Skeen,	Mr. Tappan.

Bacteriology is taught by lectures accompanied by practical work in the laboratory.
The instruction given at the University in this subject differs from that

given in most schools of medicine in several important respects. It is very commonly
the case that the student is brought almost at the very outset into relation
with the bacteria of disease, the whole or the larger part of the course of instruction
being given to their specific study, the technique involved in their culture
and determination, and the specific products of their activity. These are all matters
of the highest importance, and should by no means be neglected; but exact
and extensive knowledge of them may be and too often is associated with entire
ignorance of the real nature and affinities of the Bacteria, the general principles
of vegetable physiology of which their characteristic activities constitute a special
case, and of the essential conditions on which their culture depends. Believing
that the educated physician should, as far as possible, know the scientific principles
on which his professional knowledge rests, provision has been made for a
short course which deals with the Bacteria from the botanical standpoint, discussing
the general morphology and physiology of plants to an extent sufficient to give
the student an intelligent idea of the place of these organisms in the vegetable
kingdom and of the relation of their life to that of other plants. This knowledge
is made the basis of the farther discussion of their economic relations, their action
as causes of disease, and of the methods resorted to for their manipulation, the
most important processes of bactericultural technique being, as far as possible,
fully illustrated and demonstrated in the laboratory. The whole course is intended
to form a proper preliminary to the specific discussion of the pathogenic bacteria
which finds its proper place in the course in Pathology.

Text-Books Recommended.—The Professor's Introduction to the Bacteria; Abbot's
Principles of Bacteriology; Sternberg's or Crookshank's Manual of Bacteriology.