What Exactly Is Bacteriology

Bacteriology is the study of bacteria to find out how to kill the harmful bacteria that cause disease and how to make use of the good bacteria. A bacteriologist is a person who studies bacteria. To do this, he uses a microscope. The science of bacteriology really began when the first microscope was invented, in 1663, by a Dutchman named Anton van Leeuwenhoek, whose hobby was grinding lenses that would make things look bigger. When a doctor wishes to find out what it is that is making a person sick, he often thinks that it might be a certain type of bacteria.

First he must find out exactly what kind of bacteria it is. He takes a little piece of glass called a slide, and smears on it the saliva, blood, pus from a sore, or whatever else he thinks may show the bacteria that are causing the sickness. This is called a smear. The smear is sent to a laboratory, where it is placed in colored chemicals called stains. The stains dye the bacteria so that they are easier to see under the microscope. Different bacteria come out in different colors, and this is one way of identifying them. Doctors had suspected for years that bacteria caused disease, but Louis Pasteur, a French chemist, was the first to prove it in 1862.

A few years later, Robert Koch, a German doctor, learned how to grow bacteria when he wanted them, and how to prove whether or not they caused disease. There are separate articles about pasteur and koch. Bacteriologists have discovered many ways to overcome disease by killing harmful bacteria. They have also found many ways to benefit from useful bacteria. Long ago they learned that by keeping things very clean they could do away with many diseases. Now doctors boil their instruments before using them, because bacteria cannot live in such heat.

After an instrument has been boiled and all of the bacteria have been killed, it is said to be sterile. Bandages, cotton and other hospital equipment are all sterilized before they are used. Bacteriologists also find out what particular bacteria cause certain diseases, and then look for ways to kill these bacteria and so to prevent the diseases they cause. You can read more about this in the separate articles on antitoxin and vaccination. Another job of bacteriologists is to discover ways to make useful bacteria do more good. By "planting" certain bacteria in the soil, they help the farmer to grow bigger and better vegetables and fruits. They also help industry, by discovering what kinds of useful bacteria make the best cheese, or vinegar, or other products.