THE STORY OF GERM LIFE

BY H. W. CONN

PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AT WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY,

AUTHOR OF EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY,
THE LIVING WORLD, ETC.





PREFACE.


Since the first edition of this book was published the popular
idea of bacteria to which attention was drawn in the original
preface has undergone considerable modification. Experimental
medicine has added constantly to the list of diseases caused by
bacterial organisms, and the general public has been educated to
an adequate conception of the importance of the germ as the chief
agency in the transmission of disease, with corresponding
advantage to the efficiency of personal and public hygiene. At the
same time knowledge of the benign bacteria and the enormous role
they play in the industries and the arts has become much more
widely diffused. Bacteriology is being studied in colleges as one
of the cultural sciences; it is being widely adopted as a subject
of instruction in high schools; and schools of agriculture and
household science turn out each year thousands of graduates