An Introduction to Bacterial Physiology

The complexity of technical information presented in modern textbooks on bacterial physiology has precluded their general use by undergraduate students. The authors have designed this book to bridge the existing gap between general bacteriology and the more advanced information on bacterial physiology. The opening chapters are devoted to pertinent discussions on methods used in science, bacterial anatomy, and bacterial cytology and cytochemistry. Bacterial physiology is introduced in a section on population studies. Here the relations between organisms and their environment are brought out in discussions on growth, nutrition, genetics, and effects of chemical and physical agents. The fundamental principles of metabolism and the main lines of metabolic processes are treated in the next section. Details of reactions have been omitted as not within the scope of this book. Two interesting chapters follow on the physiology of organisms designated by the authors as The Self Reliants and The Dependents. The former