Bacteria Cultivation, Sterilising, and Preparing for Microscopical Examination.
That branch of mycology which is now looked upon as a separate department of science, termed bacteriology, took shape in the years 1875-9, when its founder, the veteran botanist Cohn, who recognised that the protoplasm of plants corresponded to the animal sarcode, published his exact mode of studying bacteria. But it was a pupil of his, Dr. Koch, who a year later discovered that a specific cattle disease, anthrax, was due to a bacillus, and it was he also who gave us the useful modification of gelatine as a medium in which to grow bacteria; he hit upon the method of pouring melted gelatine containing distributed germs on to plates, and thus isolating the colonies and ensuring the further isolation of the spores, and so facilitate the preparation of pure cultures on a large scale, and with great saving of time.
The difficulty of isolating a bacterium and tracing its life history under the microscope must at first sight appear great. A further objection that such work is slow and difficult has no more weight here than in any other department of science, as will be seen on proceeding to follow out the directions I am about to furnish for the use of the student.