88 Background of Work and Study in Public Health 



and the continuity of protoplasm in vegetables." Prepared by 

 M. L. Olivier, it had been presented to the French Academy of 

 Sciences by Monsieur P. E. Duchartre, professor at the Institut 

 Agronomique of Versailles, to whom in 1884 Smith had sent a 

 copy of the Flora of Michigan. Sachs had been among the first to 

 insist on the continuity of protoplasm throughout the vegetable 

 organism. "°^ Probably Smith acquired his original interest in this 

 fundamental conception for investigations in physiology from 

 some writing by Sachs. But, whether or not, the new study was 

 based on examinations of living plant tissues and utilized modern 

 techniques of photography, stained sections, and microscopic 

 analysis, and was proof of an interest in plant physiology in 

 addition to plant pathology and botanical taxonomy. 



Coulter the next year was to say of Smith: "He has my 

 unqualified recommendation for any position which has to do with 

 Natural History . . . He will bring to it the strength of modern 

 thought and methods and a large acquaintance with the leading 

 workers in the department." Similarly positive would be another 

 botanist's opinion as to Smith's capability. Charles Reid Barnes 

 was a professor at Purdue University and he, Arthur, and Coulter 

 were co-editors of the Botanical Gazette. Each was now interested 

 in "physiological botany." By 1885 Arthur had finished trans- 

 lating Anton de Bary's "article on bacteria" from his recent 

 Vergleichende Morphologie tind Biologie der Pilze, Aiycetozoen, 

 tind Bacterien, a translation which he evidently never published. 

 Smith did not begin to read this book by DeBary until July 7, 

 1886, but, when he did, he determined to " master the details " of 

 Ij. 202 Yhat his interest in human physiology, as a teaching subject, 

 had lasted was shown by brief descriptive reviews of textbooks in 

 the Michigan School Moderator,~°^ and by his promise of March, 

 1885, to Commissioner of Education John Eaton of Washington 

 to complete, as requested, an article on " Physiology and Hygiene 

 in our Public Schools." The study of plants, and of plant physi- 

 ology and pathology, was now, however, his main absorbing 

 interest; and, with this enthusiasm in mind, he made ready to 

 enter the university. 



""■ William A. Locy, The grotvth of biology, 408-409, N. Y., Henry Holt and 

 Co., 1925. 



*"* Fifty years of pathology, op. cil., 19. 



'"'^5 (20): 384, Jan. 29, 1885; 5 (39): 775, June 18, 1885; etc. 



