two nations which by their individual characteristics supplement each other. France claims such great teachers as Lamarck, Claude Bernard, and Pasteur, true pioneers in the field of biology. By her spirit perhaps, too traditionalistic and suppressed by old administrative machinery, she has not always understood fully the real utility of her universities and given to her scientists the necessary means for carrying on their work. On the other hand, America, with no such rich heritage from the past, has built up modern laboratories with a new spirit and equipped them with the necessary resources. She probably possesses the greatest universities in the world. She lays claim to able investigators and, thanks to her marvelous scientific organization and to her numerous investigators, is sure to gain very rapidly a foremost place in the scientific world. If the American savants have the desire to profit by the discoveries of the French, their elders, France has much to gain by imitating America in her practical ideas, her spirit of organization, her methods of work, and her tremendous activity.
The book which Professor Tanner has undertaken to present to the public cannot be regarded as a simple translation of my work; it is a new edition resulting from intimate collaboration of translator and author. Microbiology is progressing so rapidly that the French edition, now six years old, is no longer abreast with recent acquisitions of the science. It was found necessary to make numerous editions and to modify certain chapters in which Professor Tanner and myself have shared the labor. Professor Tanner, known by his work on the biochemistry of bacteria, has undertaken the revision of the Chapter on Physiology of the Yeasts which was no small task, for since the discovery of zymase by Buchner, the biochemical investigations on yeasts have followed each other without interruption and have become increasingly valuable. As for myself, I have borne the task of revising the Chapters on Morphology, Phylogeny and Description of Species, subjects with which I am more familiar. Professor Tanner had, then, a preponderant part in the translation of this new edition and the book has certainly gained much by the collaboration of a physiologist so well qualified.
ALEXANDRE GUILLIERMOND
LYON, September 8, 1919
