Practical Handbook of Bacteriology

The new edition of Mackie and McCartney's "Practical Handbook of Bacteriology" shouli be a very useful volume for the student of bacteriology and the laboratory worker. It is divided into three sections, the first and third being devoted to immunology and general bacteriology respectively. The more important phenomena of immunity and details of the more commonly occurring bacteria are set out with great lucidity, and these sections will be found of value to the junior student of bacteriology. The middle section of the book deals with bacteriological technique, including the methods of collecting specimens and of their examination, and a full account of the preparation of culture media. The methods of performing the Wassermann test and its various modifications are described, and also the complement fixation tests. In this new edition the methylene blue reduction method for the bacteriological testing of milk is described, and the details of procedure given are those laid down by the Ministry of Health in their recent report. The grouping of streptococci by the precipitation reaction is dealt with, and the method of carrying out the test. Griffith's method of seriological typing of streptococci is also described. A more detailed table for the identification of the food-poisoning bacteria than that in the last edition, is given, and this will be found very useful. Reference is made to the more recently identified types of pneumococci, to the Vi antigen in B. typhosus, and to this oxidase reaction for the identification of gonococci in cultures. The chapter on filterable viruses has been revised and enlarged and is particularly good. The book is easy to read, and no doubt will be as popular as its previous editions with student and practical worker. The publishers are to be congratulated on an excellent idea, well carried out. Anyone who has lectured to medical students knows how much attention, which might profitably be devoted to the words of the lecturer, is distracted to the effort of copying and labelling a complicated diagram, the result being ultimately both inaccurate and incomprehensible. Messrs. Garrett and Campbell have produced a set of " skeleton sketches "-outline drawings of bones, joints, and larger portions of the skeleton, on which the student can insert the various muscles, related vessels, nerves, etc. The advantages are obvious: the student does not waste time in producing an outline remotely resembling, say, the maxilla, and the outline, being reasonably correct, …