ΤΟ MY HONORED AND BELOVED GRANDFATHER Mr. Facob Grim WHOSE PARENTAL LOVE AND LIBERALITY ENABLED ME TO PURSUB MY MEDICAL EDUCATION THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. To his scientific friends, whose continued appreciation and patronage have made necessary the preparation of this seventh edition of the PATHOGENIC BACTERIA, the author desires to extend his sincere thanks. In so far as his pages have been found a useful and reliable guide, he is elated; in so far as they may have failed, he feels humiliated, but is stimulated to renewed and more earnest endeavors on their behalf. The flight of time has brought with it many changes, but perhaps in no department of learning have they come in greater number or with more startling rapidity than in Microbiology. When, some eighteen years ago, the author was appointed to give the first systematic course of lectures upon Bacteriology, in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, there were few text-books suitable for the use of students, and the preparation of the "Pathogenic Bacteria seemed to be a justified, though a doubtful venture. To-day our shelves groan beneath the weight of many excellent vol umes. When the "Pathogenic Bacteria" appeared, all of the existing books were general in character. The title adopted by the author seemed to be of doubtful expediency, lest it should limit the success of the work by contracting the sphere of its usefulness. But it was fortunate in meeting with a cordial reception, and, in spite of its title, soon came to be looked upon and used as a general text-book. All of the early revisions were directed toward increasing its general usefulness and making it serviceable in all the fields in which Bacteriology was taught or practised. But now, times have changed, and it can no longer be said that anything short of a many volume encyclopedia can be regarded as an adequate" general" work upon Bacteriology. There are now excellent books devoted to microbiology; to the systematic classification and identification of bacteria; to the laboratory methods used in studying them; to the chemistry and toxicology of their metabolic products; to the problems of infection and immunity; to the individual theories of immunity; to the blood-serum therapy; to bacteriovaccination and the opsonic index; to complement-fixation; to the bacteriology of water; to the bacteriology of foods; to the bacteriology of the dairy; to the bacteriology of sewage and the methods of its disposal; to the relation of bacteriology to agriculture; to the relation of bacteriology to the public health; to veterinary bacteriology, and so on and on, almost without limit. A dozen great international journals in English, German, and French are devoted to the subject, and weigh down our shelves with hundreds of ponderous volumes of innumerable monographs and experimental researches, and one becomes bewildered in his efforts to "keep up" with the ever-expanding information. In the meantime the "Pathogenic Bacteria," diverted from one after another of the fields it had pre-empted, but for which it was not definitely intended, found and held its own place as a medical book. As it became more and more clear that the original intention of the author was to be realized and the destiny of his book was to be purely medical, it became equally clear that the present revision must meet the requirements of that field. as completely and as perfectly as possible. In the past the "Pathogenic Bacteria" has been devoted to the consideration of bacteria only When the author was criticized because it had nothing to say about the higher fungi and the Protozoa, he pointed out that the title declared the contents of the work, and a change would be inconsistent with the original purpose. There was always the feeling that the development of Protozoology would soon make it necessary for the student to have a text-book upon the Pathogenic Protozoa, and that it would then become necessary to divorce the two subjects again. As, however, knowledge of the protozoa engaged in human pathology has not so expanded as to make this either necessary or desirable, and as the future purpose of the "Pathogenic Bacteria" is to meet the needs of students of human medicine and pathology, it has become both desirable and practicable to change the original plan, depart from the unwholesome consistency, and, without any important change in the title, offer to old friends and future patrons a work that shall endeavor to meet all modern requirements: By describing all the pathogenic micro-organisms of By teaching the laboratory technic with reference to By dwelling upon the anatomic and physiologic disturb- By explaining such methods of diagnosis and treatment JOSEPH MCFARLAND. PHILADELPHIA, September, 1912. |