On Plant Pathokh.v and Bacti-riologv 1U7 



In 1870 rdouarj Prillicux, "founder of phytopathology in 

 l-'rancc," ' ' had published on a bacterial disease t)f plants — his red- 

 rose, or micrococcus, disease of wheat kernels. Althout;h his 

 account of his microscopic examination was explicit and his 

 fii^ures "not obscure,"*^" he had not made any pure cultures or 

 inoculations. In 1880 a young pathologist, J. H. Wakker, then 

 working in the laboratory of Hugo de Vries at Amsterdam, Hol- 

 land, had begun, under a royal grant secured by the hyacinth 

 growers of Haarlem^ to investigate the yellow disease of hyacinths. 

 Publishing five papers on the subject between the years 1883-1888, 

 he established its cause to be of bacterial origin. "^^ Subsequent 

 study was to show him " entirely right in his main contentions." "- 

 But, though his studies attracted wide attention, scholars were 

 neglectful or skeptical of his conclusions. Methods of isolating 

 the causal organism thus far depended largely on direct infection 

 experiments. No standard form for describing an organism, of 

 course, had come into being, owing to the plausible reason that 

 no one knew^ exactly all of the characteristics requisite to establish 

 its pathogenicity. No studies, either to confirm or dispute Wak- 

 ker's findings, w^re made for some time.'"'^ Orazio Comes*'* of 

 Naples, Italy, was a widely known plant pathologist of this time. 

 Smith "^ regarded him as 



one of the earliest workers in this field. He recognized bacteria in the 

 tissues of various diseased plants in southern Italy as early as 1880, and 

 published a number of papers on Bacterium gtnnmis, which he believed 

 to be a widely distributed parasite attacking many plants. He did not, 

 however, grow the organism properly in pure cultures and secure infec- 

 tions, nor describe it so that one can now be certain of its identity. 



Burrill's studies of plant bacteria began in the middle 1870's, 

 preceded the work of all other students, and were slow to be fully 



" H. H. Whetzel, Outl. hist, of phytopath., op. cit., 93-94. 



"" E. F. Smith, Bacteria in relation to plant diseases 2, Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, 1911, " Histor)'," p. 7. 



"^ Idem, 7-8; "' Wakker's Hyacinth Germ," historical, Bulletin 26: 9-10, U. S. 

 Dep't of Agric, 1901. 



""- Bact. in Rel. to Plant Dis., op. cit., 2: 7. 



"* Idem, 335-353; E. F. Smith, The bacterial diseases of plants: a critical review 

 of the present state of our knowledge, American Naturalist 30: 797-804; 912-924; 

 1896; Wakker's Hyacinth Bacterium, Proc. Anier. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 46: 274, 1897. 



"* H. H. Whetzel, O////. Hist, of Phytopath., op. cit., 96. 



^'^ Bact. in Rel. to Plant Dis., op. cit., 2: 8. 



