Of Till- SciHNcn or Plant BactI'Iuoi.ogy 311 



mended procedures until these were publislicd and distributed 

 in the year 1898. Standard bacterioloi^ical practice was under 

 discussion at meetings of scientific societies, inckiding Section G 

 and the Society for Phmt Morphology and Physiology. Further- 

 more, the work of preparing reviews for the American Naturalist 

 doubtless brought the report to his notice, if, in fact, the pamphlet 

 was not sent to, or obtained by, him directly. 



In the January 1, 1896 issue of Aynerican Naturalist ^^ Smith 

 reviewed, under the title, " Relation of Sugars to the Growth of 

 Bacteria," the recently published and " most discriminating " paper 

 on this subject by Theobald Smith, " Ueber die Bedeutung des 

 Zuckers in Kulturmedien fiir Bakterien {Centrb. f. Bak. u. Par., 

 iMed., Bd: XVIII, No. 1)." After serving more than a decade as 

 Chief of the Division of Animal Pathology of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, Theobald Smith had resigned from 

 that position on May 15, 1895," to become director of the path- 

 ological laboratory of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, 

 and in 1896 professor of comparative pathology at Harvard 

 University. 



In September 1896 Veranus A. Moore, after taking Smith's 

 place as chief of the laboratory of pathology of the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, had also resigned his position to become pro- 

 fessor of comparative pathology, bacteriology, and meat inspec- 

 tion — later dean — of the New York State Veterinary College at 

 Cornell University. The rapid advances in exact knowledge of 

 animal pathology being achieved in veterinary science were 

 proving in this field the value of laboratories of experimental 

 research. Within six years after Salmon's famous 1884 experi- 

 ments on Barren Island, for instance, contagious pleuropneumonia 

 in cattle had been practically eliminated from this country, and 

 at a small expense when compared with the monetary savings 

 made possible. Glanders and tuberculosis, furthermore, could 

 now be accurately diagnosed; and the amount of each disease 

 in the United States had been greatly reduced by proper sanitary 

 measures. The terrors once held for anthrax and rabies had been 

 alleviated. Contagious maladies were being differentiated from 



"30(349): 66-(>-^, Jan. 1896. 



** Transcribed from the offiical documentary sources at the Agricultural Division 

 of the United States National Archives. 



