Included on this web page are the and Table of Contents from the first edition.
Images are from the fourth edition.
In preparing this book the author has kept in mind the needs of the student and practitioner of medicine, for whom the importance of an acquaintance with practical bacteriology cannot be overestimated. It is to advances made through bacteriological research that we are indebted for much of our knowledge of the conditions underlying infection, and for the elucidation of many hitherto obscure problems concerning the etiology, the modes of transmission, and the means of prevention of infectious maladies. Only within a comparatively short time have students and physicians been enabled to obtain the systematic instruction in this science that is of value in aiding them in their efforts to check disease. The rapid increase in the number who are availing themselves of these opportunities speaks directly for the practical value of the science. As the majority of those undertaking the study of bacteriology do so with the view of utilizing it in medical practice, and as many of these can devote to it but a portion of their time, it is desirable that the subject- matter be presented in as direct a manner as possible.