John Robinson Verner

No one who peruses the literature of the subject can fail to reach the conclusion that modern bacteriology is a hodge podge. The science, if such it may be called, suffers acutely from the conflict between long cherished theory and demonstrable fact. Confronted with this dilemma, some have sought to substitute, for the more general, orthodox theory, a number of specific theories to fit specific sets of observations. As a result, they have only added to the confusion, for the several theories are not mutually reconcilable. Sometimes the incompatibilities are more apparent than real, but no one has taken the trouble to show why this is so, and the confusion persists. The exact etiology of zymotic diseases and the nature of the ensuing disease process …