On Plant Pathology and Bactlriology 101 



Actinia Recent (Frcsidciit) it was he who matlc the University of lUinois 

 out ot wli.it had been but a small collei;e with a small collei^e outlook. . . . 

 Had he not been, almost from the first, charged with heavy responsibility 

 for the t;cneral University welfare he woukl have been one of the world's 

 foremost bacterioloi;ists. As it was, his discovery of the cause of pear 

 blis;ht marked a new step in the study of microscopic life. 



Biirrill's own account""' of his early teaching was as follows: 



in my first public address at the University here in the winter of 1869-70 I 

 pointed out the need of studies in the diseases of plants and referred 

 slii;htly to what was then known on the subject. The following year I 

 introduced in the course of instruction a term's work called " Cryptogamic 

 Botany": this was most surely curious teaching but parasitic fungi was 

 made a part of the work. By 1873, however, we had gotten better into 

 the subject. . . '. [I]n the Transactions of the Illinois Horticultural 

 Society, volume 7, page 217, 1873, you will find a paper entitled " Aggres- 

 sive Parasitism of Fungi " in which the claim is made that these vegetable 

 parasites are the cause not simply the results of diseases. In the same 

 series, volume 9, page 139, 1875, you will find a paper entitled "Lettuce 

 Mold, or Leaf Blight " showing something of what I was at at that time. 

 From this on in those earlier days my students always had as a part of 

 their botanical instruction this matter of fungous parasites. 



According to Dr. Hottes, the text used in the course on crypto- 

 gamic botany was Mordecai Cubitt Cooke's ^^ Rusf, Smut, Mildeiv, 

 and Mould, An introduction to the study of Microscopic Fungi 

 (186'S), a little volume considerably the product of study at the 

 Kew Gardens, England. He equipped a botanical laboratory and 

 furnished microscopic instruction to his students who were " given 

 the opportunity of seeing and studying from actual specimens the 

 characteristics of the mildews and other forms of plant disease." 

 His first microscope was imported from J. Moeller, Giesen, Ger- 

 many, 1868. The second was purchased in 1869 from Spencer and 

 Eaton. A Newton Binocular with all accessories was next bought; 

 and in 1876, under his direction, " the University Mechanical 

 Shops made eight microscope stands, and furnished them with 

 oculars and objectives imported from J. Moeller. . . . Prof. Bur- 

 rill's deepening interest in the bacteria demanded increasingly 

 better lenses giving greater magnification and higher resolving 

 powers. He purchased for $120 a R. S. Tolles, Boston, Mass., Ks 

 inch, from Spencer Sons, Canastota, N. Y. (1869), a Vis inch 



"Letter written by Burrill to Smith, December 17, 1901. 

 *' H. T. Gussow, Pljyto pathology 6 (1): iff., Jan. 1916. 



