298 Recognition in America 



fundamental culture medium of work in bacteriology, provided 

 such an instance. Smith estimated the several papers on bacteri- 

 ology which appeared in October 1895 in the Journal of the 

 American Public Health Association as valuable.^^ In the intro- 

 ductory article of his reviews of bacterial diseases of plants, he 

 cited as authority ^'^ Fuller's paper, " On the proper reaction of 

 nutrient media for bacterial cultivation." In this appeared a table 

 which illustrated " the effect on the growth of water bacteria of 

 comparatively slight changes in the reaction of gelatine," a point 

 having to do with the growth of organisms in acid media. This 

 was pertinent in that " Many bacteria prefer alkaline media, and 

 some are very sensitive to the presence of acids, while a variety 

 of bacteria commonly met with in water will not develop at all 

 if the medium is rendered strongly alkaline. Other organisms 

 grow well in acid media." 



In 1896 Smith, with more than two years experience studying 

 plant bacterial diseases in his own laboratory, began full-scale in- 

 vestigation of the cultural characters of several bacteria pathogenic 

 to plants: Bacterium campestre. Bacterium hyacinthi (Wakker's 

 yellow disease of hyacinths), and Bacterium phaseoli (bean 

 blight) .*^° He redescribed the morphology and pathogenic prop- 

 erties of Wakker's organism in publications of 1897 ^'^ and 1901.°" 

 Securing repeated infection by pure cultures, he described in 1897 

 Bacillus phaseoli as a new species. Beach of the New York Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station and Halsted of the New Jersey station, 

 from microscopic examinations, in 1892, had described the disease 

 as due to bacteria. °^ But Smith pointed out that the organism itself 



^^ Bacteria in relation to plant diseases, op. cit., bibliography, 1:203. See 

 especially Fuller's report, Jour. Public Health Assn. 20: 381, 1895. 



"^^ The bacterial diseases of plants: a critical review etc., op. cit., 1: 639. 



^° Erwin F. Smith, The cultural characters of Pseudomonas hyacinthi, Ps. campes- 

 tris, Ps. phaseoli, and Ps. stewarti — four one-flagellate yellow bacteria parasitic on 

 plants, Bulletin 28, Div. of Veg. Phys. and Path., U. S. Dep't of Agric, Washington, 

 Gov't Print. Office, letter of transmittal by Woods Jan. 15, p. 2. See also, Synopsis 

 of researches, op. cit., 27, 28. 



*^ Wakker's Hyacinth Bacterium, Proc. Am. Ass'n for the Adv. of Sci. 46: 274, 

 1897. In this Smith said that he took up the reexamination in 1896. 



'^ The cultural characters of Pseudomonas hyacinthi etc., op. cit., supra. 



'^ Erwin F. Smith, Description of Bacillus phaseoli n. sp., with some remarks on 

 related species, Proc. Am. Asso. for Adv. of Sci. 46: 288, 1897. Organism under 

 pure cultures had been studied for about 13 months. Beach's and Halsted's 1892 

 studies were: N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 48n. s.: 331; Kept. Bot. Dpt. N. J. Exp. 

 Sta. for 1892: 283-285. Smith cited these in his 1901 bulletin. 



