Placed on a Nation-widi-; Basis 221 



mittcd his list of bacterial plant diseases to Smith for any cor- 

 rections or ideas he mit;ht wish to offer and to secure the benefit 

 of his experience and knowledge of the subject and its literature. 

 Smith for a number of years had served as secretary of the 

 Washington alumni association of the University of Michigan. 

 Whether in this capacity or while in Michigan he became ac- 

 cjuainted with Dr. Henry M. Hurd, superintendent of Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital and professor of psychiatry in the medical 

 sdiool, is not known. However, Dr. Hurd, no later than January 

 30, 1892, had become acquainted with Smith, for, on that date 

 Hurd wrote him th'anking him for his recent monograph on peach 

 yellows and peach rosette and for an "enjoyable evening in 

 Washington" when he had met many old, and some new, friends 

 "with a tie of common interest," which must have referred to an 

 alumni interest in the University. Dr. Hurd added to his letter: 

 "By the way John P. Lotsy a Fellow-by-Courtesy, a Ph.D. of 

 Gottingen, is to give some lectures in Dr. Welch's Pathological 

 Laboratory on Plant Diseases at an early day. If you come over 

 I shall be glad to send you a special invitation." 



Lotsy published in June, 1893, " On the Toxic Substance of the 

 Bacillus Amylovorus, the Cause of Pearblight." ""^ Certainly, there- 

 fore, his lecture could have considered bacterial, as well as fungous, 

 diseases of plants and, if so. Smith must have attended, since by 

 the years 1892-1893 his research interests embraced every plant 

 disease including those caused by bacteria and fungi. 



Field research in crop diseases of the southern states and around 

 Washington, including subsisting and new experimental work in 

 Maryland, absorbed his attention. During all seasons of the year 

 Smith's indoor laboratory work had been almost completely inter- 

 rupted. In 1891 he and Swingle had been sent to Georgia and 

 Florida. Before they went, however, Galloway had appointed 

 Lucien M. Underwood, (Professor of Botany at Syracuse Uni- 

 versity, and during other periods of time at schools in Alabama 

 and Indiana and at Columbia University, and then on leave of 

 absence and taking graduate work with Far low at Harvard), a 

 special agent for the Division of Vegetable Pathology, to visit 

 Florida and collect information concerning orange and other 

 plant diseases threatening the state's agricultural economy. During 



''° Johns Hopkins Circular 106: 105, June 1893. The thesis wa.s daM April 18, 

 1893. 



