Page:The Indian Journal of Medical Research, 1920.djvu/70

 BACTERIOLOGICAL AND LABORATORY TECHNIQUE. BY LIEUT.-COLONEL W. F. HARVEY, m.a., m.b., d.p.h., i.m.s., Director, Central Research Institute, Kasauli. [ Received for publication, September 2, 1920. ] Introduction. The series of articles commencing in this number cannot be strictly regarded as representing the results of research. If they prove helpful, however, to research and laboratory workers, they will serve a useful purpose. These articles, pubhshed now in serial form, to make them available, are part of a work on technique, of dictionary form, which, although all the materials for its preparation are in readiness, will take several years to complete. Some commentary on its form is required to make the arrangement of subjects and the method of indexing intelligible. The three main ideas governing the arrangement are : — (1) the utilization of a form of description by definite categorical steps without parenthetical or explanatory interpolation, (2) the utilization of ' Notes ' to supplement, by subsidiary description, the deficiencies of the main description, and to afEord a commentary on the method, (3) the utilization of a specially detailed index as the means of guiding the worker to all the information he requires. As a rule a considerable number of methods is given under the same heading, thereby affording an indication of the extent and manner in which a worker may modify the technique to suit his own convenience. The index, besides being very detailed, has special features. A decimal system has been utilized for indicating the po.sition in the work of the subject sought for. This method, which has been used for purposes of library cataloguing and for description of the characters of zoological genera and species, has not, so far as I know, been u.sed for the purpose to which I have now put it. ( 270 ) I