This textbook has evolved from lectures presented in my bacteriology courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its contents are suitable for reading or presentation in courses or course modules concerning general microbiology and medical bacteriology at the college and advanced high school levels of education. As an electronic text, new material is constantly being added, and current material is constantly being revised and updated. This is an inherent advantage of the web-based text over the tree-burner. The textbook will never be complete, as the rate of production of new information in microbiology far outruns the author's ability to acquire and properly present it.

Kenneth Todar

University of Wisconsin

Department of Bacteriology