292 Recognition in America 



" The great development of modern bacteriology," Smith 

 affirmed,-^ 



is attributable largely to the discovery that human diseases are due to these 

 organisms, and to its consequent alliance with medicine, but there is no 

 reason why the same rigid scrutiny of methods and sharp calling in ques- 

 tion of statements which have led to such brilliant results in animal path- 

 ology in recent years should not be applied in the same way to vegetable 

 pathology. Accurate experimentation and trustworthy results are from a 

 purely scientific standpoint quite as desirable in one field as in the other. 



This statement in considerable part became Smith's doctrine. 

 His own work began to prove what he thought possible for a 

 science of bacteriology in plants. L. R. Jones, receiving his 

 account of "A Bacterial Disease of the Tomato, Eggplant, and 

 Irish Potato {^Bacillus solanacearum new species)," '" wrote: ^° 



It stands unrivalled as a thorough piece of work on bacterial disease 

 of plant. This together with your contributions in Am[erican} Nat[uralist} 

 should serve two purposes — first, to furnish an example and standard for 

 us '" yankees " to work to — second, to secure proper recognition of Ameri- 

 can work from Europeans. 



In 1897 Smith read before the Biological Society of Washington 

 a paper on "A Bacterial Disease of Cruciferous Plants." ^^ But 

 his main publications on Pseudomonas campestris were in the 

 Centralhlatt fur Bakteriologie II ^^ that year and, after reexamining 

 and confirming the facts of this paper, in 1898 another paper in 

 the Zeitschrift fiir Pfianzenkrankheiten. Early in 1897 Dr. Paul 

 Sorauer of Berlin wrote for his reprints on plant bacterial dis- 

 eases. His work was recognized in America also. Among many 

 others, Dr. Henry M. Hurd of Johns Hopkins Hospital praised 

 the depth to which his study had gone.^^ 



In 1893 Dr. Russell had accepted a call to return to his alma 

 mater. The University of Wisconsin, as assistant professor of 

 bacteriology. By 1897 he had been made full professor of the 

 subject, and was in 1903 to be constituted director of the Wis- 

 consin State Hygienic Laboratory and in 1907 dean of the college 



^ndem, 635. 



'" Bull. 12, U. S. D. A. Div. Veg. Phys. and Path., Dec. 19, 1896. 



^° Letter, Jones to Smith, February 20, 1897. 



" Science n. s., 5: 963, June 18, 1897. 



^" Bacteria in relation to plant diseases II: 333, bibliog. 



''^ Letter, Hurd to Smith, November 13, 1897. 



