Prlparatorv to Ri:si;ar(H CARrnR 41 



multiplication." He had begun some reading in plant physiology. 

 A lecture, published in Ndture,'' on the "Excitability of Plants" 

 fascinated him. In his "Index Rcrum ' he outlined the results 

 of irritability experiments on Mimosa and some experiments, 

 made with the use of an electrometer, on Dionaea, an insecti- 

 vorous plant. The similarities in movement phenomena and other 

 changed physical conditions observed in these two genera of 

 plants were compared; and comment extended to resemblances 

 and ditterences which take place in animal tissues, for example, 

 when muscles contract. 



In 1S82, when he prepared his " short account of the bacteria " 

 for the Micbrgan School Moderator, he knew something of the 

 bacilli which were supposed to explain putrefaction and fermenta- 

 tion. He knew something of the bacilli which were believed to 

 cause anthrax (or splenic fever) in animals, consumption in man 

 and animals, and diphtheria in man. The July 1882 number of 

 the London Practitioner was important because it contained a 

 paper by a Swedish doctor on the etiology of scarlet fever, and 

 because of another which told of the presence of micrococci in 

 mumps. Earlier that year, in his "scientific and sanitary" column 

 for the /Moderator,-^ he had written on angleworm infusion as 

 possibly involved in the etiology of typhoid fever. Soil, water, 

 and air parasites always interested him. In his " Index Rerum," 

 his references to plants contained some mention of works on 

 fungi, but none specifically concerning diseases of plants. The 

 North American fossil flora, including such current interest topics 

 as the genesis and migration of plants, interested him. But equally 

 strong were his interests in matters dangerous to human welfare 

 and health: unsanitary house drainage, sewer gas, street filth, and 

 the like. 



Before Smith moved from Ionia to Lansing to accept a position 

 as correspondence clerk of the Michigan State Board of Health, 

 he had learned of Louis Pasteur's discovery in France of a vaccine 

 remedy against anthrax in animals. Immediately following an 

 editorial on the death of Charles Darwin, who he believed had 

 since 1859 "completely revolutionized scientific thought," he pub- 



" August 10, September 14, 1882. Lecture by J. S. Burdon Sanderson. 

 "2 (22): 18, Feb. 16, 1882. 



