Microbiological Summary of Conference

Abstract

I didn’t realize what I had agreed to when I promised to make the microbiological summary, but when I saw the program. I was also very tempted because it had a content that really attracted me. During thè last three days, we have been sitting for approximately 20 h listening to various aspects of anaerobes and anaerobic infection. I recall a story about a young boy whose father was a microbiologist, and this father used to work a bit on Sundays. One Sunday morning he took his young boy with him. While the father was doing some work in the lab, he let his young boy look at some slides in the microscope, and the boy saw some tiny blue rods. He asked his father what type of bacteria this was, and he said, they are diphtheroids. The boy was pleased with this and he looked at another slide and saw some other kinds of blue rods, and he again asked his father what bacteria they were. The father looked in the microscope and said they are diphtheroids. And the boy looked at a third slide and again he saw some blue rods that looked a little bit different. And so he had to ask his father, and he said well, they are anaerobic diphtheroids. “But Daddy,” said the boy, “are diphtheroids allowed to look like whatever they want to?” I thought this simple story might well form the basis for a microbiological summary of this conference.