Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Handbook of Bacteriological Diagnosis for Practitioners: Including Instructions for the Clinical Examination of the Blood
Leith for his kind suggestions as to the general scope of the book.
No apology will be made for the numerous repetitions which will be found in this book. They are essential to its scope, which is to give clear accounts of the processes with as little reference to other chapters as possible. In the majority of cases each section is complete in itself.
These instructions are followed by information as to the interpretation of the results which may be obtained and this information applies equally whether the medi cal man has made the examination for himself or has obtained it ready made from a public laboratory. It too commonly happens that practitioners feel themselves aggrieved because they get a negative report (as to the presence or absence of Widal's reaction) on blood taken during the first few days of an illness which turns out to be typhoid fever, or are inclined to discredit bacterio logical examinations because diphtheria bacilli are found in throats which exhibit no membrane and clear up in a few days without serious symptoms.
In the second place, there are a good many cases in which the investigation had better be made in a public laboratory. In these the questions, of what to send, and how to send it, are fully explained. This a most important point. A bacteriologist is not a magician who is able to weave a spell if he has a small portion of his victim's anatomy to work upon; and the materials must be taken in the proper way if his results are not to be useless or even misleading. This is well seen in the examination of the blood for bacteria. In many cases the blood is drawn in such a manner that it must necessarily be contaminated from the skin during the operation and is transmitted in vaccine tubes which were almost certainly not sterile before being filled. Under such circumstances the bacteriologist will probably report the presence of streptococci or staphylococci, and the practitioner who does not understand the fallacies of the examination may be led to make a diagnosis which will be disastrous to his own reputation and may be injurious to the patient.
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