322 Recognition in America 



presented in 1898 before Section G as already stated, provided 

 ten formulas, some of them making use of " crude vegetable sub- 

 stances " having " very different quantities and kinds of nutrient " 

 capabilities. At the same meeting. Smith offered another paper,. 

 " Potato as a culture medium, with some notes on a synthesized 

 substitute." ^-^ In this he also described how to prepare another 

 medium which he called " nutrient starch jelly." 



On May 13, 1898, another graduate of Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology, Samuel C. Prescott, wrote Smith for " cultures of 

 various organisms." He was then an instructor in Sedgwick's 

 department of biology and, while he had not studied " the bac- 

 teriology of plant diseases to any considerable extent," he appre- 

 ciated " how interesting the work must be." They were then 

 moving into their " new laboratory " and he was putting their 

 " cultures in first class condition." 



In March 1898 F. C. Stewart, then at Ithaca, had sent a culture 

 of his sweet corn bacillus growing on potato agar and asked 

 Smith to " work it over and give the organism a name." In 

 December, in bulletin 130 of the New York station at Geneva, 

 he had published on the " Bacterial Disease of Sweet Corn." But 

 he wanted Smith to restudy it at the Department of Agriculture, 

 straighten out any possible confusion in synonymy, cultural charac- 

 ters, and other points. Smith carried the organism through many 

 cultures, compared it with other organisms, found it an undes- 

 cribed form, tabulated the particulars on which he and Stewart 

 were unable to agree, supplied sixteen points of additional data, 

 and a synopsis of characters. This research was the basis of a 

 third paper submitted in 1898 by Smith to Section G, and was 

 entitled, " Notes on Stewart's sweet-corn germ, Pseudomonas 

 stewarti, new species." ^'■' 



Smith, in his last evaluation of his own study of this disease, 

 said: ''' 



The writer first described the parasite from cultures sent to him by 

 Stewart for that purpose and figured it as polar flagellate, but subsequent 

 studies in his laboratory showed this to be an error and the statements in 

 [Introduction to Bacterial Diseases of Plants ^^s] are more dependable as 



"■^Udem, 411-412. 



^" Idetn, 422-426. 



^^* Synopsis of researches, op. cit., 29-30. 



^^* Op. cit., 160-176. 



