University of Virginia Library

BACTERIOLOGY.

   

Professor Tuttle,	Dr. Burrow,
Dr. Skeen,	Dr. Wholey.

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, of 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 regular place in the course in
Pathology.

Text-Book.—The Professor's Introduction to the Bacteria. For reference:
Sternberg's or Crookshank's Manual of Bacteriology.