Birds and Nature Vol. 9 No. 1 [January 1901]. Various

      THE STUDY OF BACTERIA

      The bacteriologist is working in a wonderland fully as remote to the average mind as that ever occupied by the astronomer or psychologist; and yet it is as real to him as though he were walking through a forest and noting the different kinds of trees. Such popular doubts as have been held regarding bacteriology and even the existence of bacteria are no longer justified. The evidence is too overwhelming not to be accepted by anyone who has sufficient interest to investigate. The methods used in bacteriologic studies are to-day giving us information fully as concise as that obtained by the general botanist in the study of higher plants. Indeed, the phenomena of bacterial activities and the chemistry of the products of growth of many species of bacteria have already received attention not equaled in the study of some of our most useful plants.

      Bacteria are plants; not because of any absolute characteristic that separates them from animals, but because comparative study shows that they are more like plants than animals. They are single-celled organisms and each individual has the prime factors of life, assimilation, growth and reproduction. Each bacterium is an independent cell and although the cells in some species remain attached to one another, giving rise to characteristic groupings, they are mostly detached and free individuals. Bacteria can increase in numbers to a remarkable extent when favorable conditions exist. The mother-cell simply splits into two daughter-cells and these form a generation of four cells, while later generations, consisting of perhaps one million cells, can in fifteen or twenty minutes produce two million bacteria. But conditions must be favorable for this active growth, ample food stuffs, free from other bacteria, together with moisture and reasonable warmth are most essential. There are many circumstances constantly at work to prevent an overgrowth of bacteria; exhaustion of food supply, antagonism of species and fresh air with sunshine, are the most important. Bacteria are present everywhere in greater or less numbers, except within the bodies of healthy, growing plants and animals. It is for this reason that bacteria become so active and multiply with great rapidity when once established in the tissue fluids of larger organisms, either before or after they have died. Vital activities during health prevent the entrance of bacteria into our bodies. There are, however, times when the association of different species of bacteria and also the association of bacteria with higher plants is of mutual advantage. The association of decomposition and pathogenic bacteria frequently makes it possible for the latter to infect an animal, when alone it perhaps would not take place. Again, the growth of certain bacteria within the root-structure of plants greatly improves their functional activity. The leguminous plants are enabled to assimilate much larger quantities of nitrogen when associated with bacteria than when growing alone. No such mutually advantageous relationships are known to exist between bacteria and animals; the tendencies are rather destructive, leading to the infectious diseases. The general biologic function of the bacteria is very important and in a general way the need of their existence can be much better appreciated than that of many living beings. Decomposition may be stated as being their chief functional activity. Decomposition stands before life; without it the progress of the generations would terminate. The gradual and ever rapid disappearance of the substance of vegetable and animal bodies after death makes room for growing life. With an absence of decomposition the bodies of plants and animals would collect on the earth and cover it so deeply with organic matter that plants in particular would be entirely unable to obtain requisite nourishment. Higher plants having chlorophyll are able to feed on inorganic material, while bacteria require organic matter to sustain life. Bacterial food is then derived from the higher forms of life, while these higher forms feed on the end products of bacterial decomposition, with the addition of salts from the earth. An evolutionary query might then arise as to the early conditions in the history of organic life on the earth. It is certainly a fertile field for the theorist. Accepting the general rule that simplicity of structure indicates priority, what then was the food supply of the primordial bacterium before the advent of higher plants to supply requisite organic matter? We can hardly believe that there was already in existence sufficient ammonia-bearing compounds of suitable quality to sustain these lowest organisms until evolutionary conditions added organisms having the capacity of collecting nitrogen and carbon from purely inorganic sources. These general facts, as we now see them, would apparently strengthen the thought that different kinds of organisms became extant at the same time.

      The methods used in bacteriologic study are based on a few very distinct principles. Successful cultivation of bacteria depends upon a knowledge of sterilization, preparation of culture media and isolation of species. It is in fact miniature gardening. A rod of platinum wire is the trowel and this is kept clean and free from undesirable organisms by heating it red hot in the gas flame. With it bacteria are lifted from tube or plate. The culture media required are mostly beef-tea and gelatine mixtures and are prepared with extreme care as to their composition and reaction. The decomposition of the culture medium is prevented by keeping it in test tubes or flasks plugged with cotton and sterilized by boiling. By means of the cotton plug the air passing in and out of the tube is filtered and the bacteria floating in the air are caught in the cotton and cannot get into the tube. It also prevents bacteria from the culture getting out of the tube and spreading infectious material. Each test tube represents a little greenhouse, but one that is free from all life; it is sterile when ready for use. To the media or culture soils in the tubes the bacteria are transplanted with the platinum rod, and active growth is obtained by placing the tubes in a suitable temperature. Such a growth of bacteria in a test tube can contain many millions of bacteria, while the resulting appearance of growth is due to the heaping up of the individuals. To the naked eye the cells are invisible, but the mass is recognized in the same way that one would know a field of wheat in the distance without being able to see each separate plant. Species of bacteria are separated by distributing a few organisms throughout a fluid and then planting upon solid media. The individual cells then grow in place and produce colonies. These are separate and distinct to the eye and each contains bacteria, all of the same kind. From colonies transplantations to tube cultures are made, and the species is propagated on different media. The observations from such growths, together with the microscopical study and sometimes inoculation experiments on animals are the data by which the species is recognized. Microscopic methods, although somewhat complicated have been so far developed that some species of bacteria can be as promptly recognized under the microscope as an acquaintance met upon the street.

      Bacteriology is now being studied and investigated as a field of research in hundreds of laboratories, and in every university in Europe and America. Bacteriology has added as much to man’s wealth and happiness as any of the applied sciences. All the methods of preservation of food depend upon bacteriological principles, while modern sanitary science is based on the recognition of the cause of infectious diseases. The presence of specific bacteria in the secretions or tissues of man and animals is now such a certainty for many diseases that the work of making bacteriologic diagnoses is in itself an extensive vocation. Within the next few years every city in America will have a diagnosis laboratory for infectious diseases. We can safely predict that the trained bacteriologist will be called upon to stand between each sick person or animal and the community to direct measures that will prevent infection of others. Hygienists are learning more every day as to the exact way in which disease bacteria pass from person to person, and the reasons for the occurrence of diseases. They have learned that the accidental and unusual circumstance is least important, but that there is a regular train of cause and effect, and in the knowledge of how to break this chain is the key to the proper control of an epidemic. Veterinary medicine has been able to obtain benefits from bacteriology much beyond those already so important

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