101 



to microbiology, during the years he had passed in Wageningen '). 

 Yet bacteriology was in a stage of rapid development at that time, as 

 the plate culture method introduced a few years earlier by KOCH led 

 to many successes rendered possible by the isolation of pure cultures. 



It is obvious therefore that BEIJERINCK was seriously in want of 

 an initiation into microbiological technique, and DE BARY'S laboratory 

 at Strasbourg was deemed to be the right place for this. DE BARY had 

 won a world fame by his fundamental mycological researches, and at 

 the end of his lifetime had centred his interest on the bacteria. His 

 "Vergleichende Morphologic und Biologic der Pilze, Mycetozoen und 

 Bacterien" had just appeared; this was the first treatise in which 

 bacteria were dealt \vith from the standpoint of the pure biologist. In 

 his obituary of DE BARY, REESS 2 ) has given a list of all the more 

 prominent scientists who had worked in DE BARY'S laboratory, and 

 it is particularly noteworthy that we find amongst those the names of 

 BEIJERINCK, ARTHUR MEYER and S. WINOGRADSKY, all of whom took 

 a leading part in the development of general microbiology during the 

 next quarter of a century. 



Although it has been rumoured that BEIJERINCK'S fierce character 

 sometimes clashed with the well-earned authority of the German 

 scientist, there is no doubt that it was in DE BARY'S laboratory, that 

 the foundations for BEIJERINCK'S development as a microbiologist 

 were laid. A hasty visit to E. CHR. HANSEN'S laboratory at Copenha- 

 gen may have helped him further in getting acquainted with the 

 new 7 er microbiological methods devised by the Danish investigator for 

 the use in fermentation industries, yet there are several indications 

 that BEIJERINCK was not much impressed by the results of this visit. 



Here the curtain drops: we have to leave BEIJERINCK alone in his 

 new laboratory in its industrial surroundings, and we can only guess 

 ho\v his initiation into the secrets of the world of yeasts and of bac- 

 teria took place. 



') In the introduction to his paper on the contagious character of gummosis he 

 reviews the bacterial plant diseases known until that time, and mentions his unsuc- 

 cessful attempts to discover bacteria in plant gums. 



-) M. REESS, Ber. deutsch. bot. G?s. 6, VIII, 1~888, 



