68 Background of Work and Study in Public Health 



ture prior to 1880 had been almost wholly inadequate. Before 

 1874 it had been an " ill-digested mixture of fact and specula- 

 tion." ^^° He pointed to Sorauer's Handhuch der Pfianzenkrank- 

 heiten of that year in which was " no mention of bacterial diseases 

 of plants. A great many diseases are included," Smith said, 



but none of this type. De Jubainville and Vesque writing in 1878 mention 

 a " cellular rot " of potatoes, radishes, carrots, and beets, occuring in the 

 soil or in cellars, but they attribute it to soil ill-adapted to the plants or 

 to improper cultivation. No mention is made of bacteria either as the 

 cause of this rot or of any other disease mentioned by them. There is 

 nothing on this subject in Winter's little book, published in 1878. . . . 

 The first edition of [A. B. Frank's Die Krankheiten der Pfla/?zefz'], pub- 

 lished in 1880, contains a brief chapter on root-tubercles of Leguminosae, 

 but nothing on bacterial diseases of plants. 



J. Reinke's and G. Berthold's Zersetzimg der Kartoffel (1879) 

 was also discussed since a potato rot was described, but their work 

 was criticised, especially for a lack of clarity on some points and 

 the failure to make use of pure culture experiments. 



Practically contemporaneous with Woronin's announcement ^^^ 

 in 1866 of his discovery of bacteria in the root- tubercles of lupins, 

 the Frenchman Davaine,^^" calling his organism Bacteriiwi putre- 

 din'is^^^ had shown that certain plants would rot when inoculated 

 with infusions containing bacteria. Ph. Van Tieghem in 1879 

 claimed to have rotted land plants with his Bacillus amylobacter.^^^ 

 There were other miscellaneous discoveries. Smith's bibliography 

 on " thermophilic bacteria " ^^' began with a publication by Pierre 

 Miquel of this year. But to an American, Thomas Jonathan 

 Burrill, belongs the honor of having found and proven (1877- 

 1880) the first real parasitic bacterium in a plant disease. His 

 discovery in pear blight, and proof by direct infection experiments, 

 of "minute moving organisms," ^^"^ bacteria ^^^ and not fungi, 



^^^ Bacteria in relation to plant diseases 2: 9-10, Carnegie Inst, of Washington, 



1911. 



^^^ See bibliography. Bacteria in relation to plant diseases, op. cit., 1: 239. 



*"= Bact. in rel. to pi. dis., op. cit., 2: 89- 



"^ Idem, 9, 77. 



"* Idem, 11. 



"'^ Bact. in rel. to pi. dis., 1: 247. 



156 'j-_ J Burrill, Blight of pear and apple trees, 10th Annual Report of the Board 

 of Trustees of Illinois Industrial University for two years ending Aug. 30, 1880, 

 62-84, Springfield, 1881. 



*" Trdwj. ///. State Horticultural Soc. for 1877: 114-116; for 1878: 79-80. 



