Textbook Sleep #34: Fundamentals of Bacteriology

The H-ion concentration method of standardization!The selective action of anilin dyes! The mechanism of entrance of pathogenic organisms into the body! These and more, MUCH MORE, await you in this episode of Textbook Sleep, where we read aloud boring public-domain textbooks to help you fall asleep.In this case, it’s The Fundamentals of Bacteriology by Charles Bradfield Morrey, published in 1921.It’s an unparalleled opportunity to enter into an unconscious state, like when you cracked a biology textbook back in high school.Remember having to re-read the same paragraph again and again, trying in vain to understand it? If you could just lay your head on the table, just for a moment, just for a second or two. But you knew from bitter experience what that would lead to: Sleep. Beautiful, restful sleep, untroubled by thoughts of the fermentation of carbohydrates or the splitting of fats.But here, we encourage sleep. Here, even the most hardened insomniac will enter a state of drowsiness long before we get to cell structures like cytoplasm, vacuoles, and metachromatic granules, whatever they are.We begin as always by ringing the official Textbook Sleep bronze bell three times. The sound will enter your ear canal and travel directly to the bacteria in your gut, causing an involuntary bodily reaction to pull up the covers, fluff your pillow, and get comfortable. Or so I’ve heard. I never took bio.This recording will end quietly. Get full access to Pieces of Jim at jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe