The method of reproduction is very simple. They increase to a certain point in size, then divide. This growth and division takes place very rapidly. Twenty to thirty minutes is sufficient time in some cases for a just-divided cell to attain full size and divide again. Thus in a few days time the number of bacteria resulting from a single individual would be inconceivable if they should all develop. Fortunately for us, however, they do not all multiply so rapidly as this and besides there are natural checks, not the least of which are the substances given off by the bacteria themselves in their growth and development. Such excretions often serve to inhibit further multiplication. Sometimes, though not often, they form spores which not only provide for a more rapid multiplication, but enable the organism to live under conditions that would otherwise prove fatal to it. Bacteria may be conveniently grouped under two heads: those that live upon dead organic matter, known as the saprophytic forms, and those that are found in living plants or animals, the true parasites. Such a grouping is not always entirely satisfactory, for many of the kinds that live saprophytically under normal conditions may become parasitic if opportunity offers, and also many of those that are usually regarded as parasitic may be grown in cultures of agar or other media, under which conditions they may be regarded as living saprophytically. It is this power of easily adapting themselves to different conditions that makes many of the kinds dangerous. The bacillus which causes tetanus or lockjaw will illustrate this. It is a rather common bacillus in soil in many localities. As long as it remains there it is of no special importance, but if it is introduced into the body through a scratch or any other wound it becomes a very serious matter. We may say, then, that the effect the bacillus has on the host depends largely on the host. Not only does it depend on what the host is, but the particular condition of the host at the time of infection is of importance. Children are subject to many diseases that adults seldom have. Hunger, thirst, fatigue, exposure and other factors may make a person susceptible to the actions of certain bacteria that would be harmless under other conditions. The minute size and great numbers of the bacteria make their dissemination a comparatively simple matter. They may be carried in the air as minute particles of dust; they may be carried in water or milk; they may be carried on the clothing or on the person from one host to another, or they may be disseminated in scores of other ways. In other chapters, particularly the one dealing with the house-fly and typhoid, we shall see how it is that insects are often important factors in spreading some of the most dreaded of the bacterial diseases. THE PROTOZOA