328 Recognition in America 



school, the fourth meeting of the Society for Plant Morphology 

 and Physiology also took place, and among the important papers 

 were H. J. Webber's on " Loss of vigour in corn from inbreeding," 

 H. von Schrenk's "A disease of the locust," and A. F. Woods's 

 on " The mosaic disease of tobacco." These were followed by 

 papers by George T. Moore of Dartmouth College on " Improved 

 methods for obtaining pure cultures of fresh-water algae," B. M. 

 Duggar and F. C. Stewart on "A second preliminary report upon 

 plant diseases in the United States due to Rhizoctonia" and M. A. 

 Carleton on " Notes on the life history of certain Uredineae." 



A joint session of the Society for Plant Morphology and the 

 Society of American Bacteriologists was held at noon in the Phar- 

 macological Lecture Room. Erwin F. Smith, member of both 

 societies, presented a lecture, illustrated by stereopticon slides, on 

 "" The bacterial diseases of plants." Science ""^ noticed the lecture: 



Three diseases were described, namely, the wilt of cucurbits due to 

 Bacilhis tracheiphilus, the brown rot of solanaceous plants due to Bacillus 

 solanacearum, and the black rot of cruciferous plants due to Pseiidomonas 

 campestris. Fifty-eight slides made from the author's clear and beautiful 

 photographs and photomicrographs were exhibited, showing symptoms, 

 location of the bacteria in the tissues, etc. Many of these illustrations will 

 be published in the near future in Centralhlatt jlir Bakteriologie. 



On December 28, at the business meeting. Smith was elected 

 president of the Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology 

 for the ensuing year. F. C. Newcombe and L. M. Underwood 

 were elected vice-presidents, and W. F. Ganong was continued 

 as secretary. 



Woods's paper on tobacco mosaic ^^^ was important because of 

 his theory that the disease was due to an inhibitory action upon 

 starch hydrolysis and translocation, induced by an excess of oxi- 

 dizing enzymes."^ Mayer had proven the malady's transmissibility, 

 Iwanowski had transmitted the disease with filtrates of diseased 

 leaves, and thus offered to science the first proof of a filtrable 

 invisible virus,^^^ and Beijerinck had confirmed his filtration experi- 



"•'N. s., 13(320): 249, Feb. 15, 1901. 



^^' Science, n. s., 13(320): 247-248, Feb. 15, 1901. 



'^^^ Phytopathology 5(2): 85, Apr. 1915 (statement based on Ralph E. Smith's 

 condensation of Woods's theory). 



^^* Gustav Seiffert, Virus diseases in man, animal and plants, translated by Marion 

 Lee Taylor, 263, N. Y., Philosophical Library, 1944; E. F. Smith, Fifty years of 

 pathology, op. cit., 20, 21, and 27. 



