344 Chief of a Laboratory of Plant Pathology 



invitation to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. 

 Farlow's letter of recommendation read: 



Being at the last moment prevented from attending the session [April 

 22-24, 1913} of the Academy, I should like to say a word in favor of Dr. 

 Erwin F. Smith who is a candidate for election. Dr. Smith in my opinion 

 is one whose knowledge of the diseases of plants due to fungi [bacteria?] 

 is greater than that of any other investigator either here or abroad. His 

 work has not been confined to the practical aspects of the subject alone 

 but has embraced a study of plant diseases in their widest sense including 

 the higher scientific questions which they naturally suggest. I feel that his 

 election would add to our number a member whose reputation is recognized 

 by pathologists the world over. 



Fischer's answer to Smith, " Die Bakterienkrankheiten der Pflan- 

 zen," "^ was immediate and published in the same number of the 

 Centfdhlatt. In 1899 the Centralhlatt -^ had published in German 

 Smith's paper on potato as a culture medium, " Kartoffel als Kul- 

 turboden, mit einigen Bemerkungen iiber ein zusammengesetztes 

 Ersatzmittel." He had begun his discussion, "Are there bacterial 

 diseases of plants? " by quoting directly from Fischer's book, and 

 the latter 's " antwort " was wholly in German. Smith believed this 

 answer, as far as the profession was concerned, 



destroy[ed} itself and need[ed} no reply. Pathologists and bacteri- 

 ologists 2^ will accept it for what it is worth, and no more. The coming 

 years will also stamp their judgment upon it, and I have absolutely no 

 fear of what that judgement will be. The " Registrierung " of an error 

 by some self-constituted authority has sometimes, in the history of science, 

 prevented a knowledge of the truth for a few years, or even for a whole 

 generation, but it will not answer in this case. . . . 



His reasons, taken together with the balance of the subject 

 matter of this reply and his earlier presentment of proof, supplied 

 science with a scholarly condensation of the established learning 

 on plant bacteriology at that time. 



During the summer of 1899 Smith received an important 

 communication from Professor Emerich Rathay, director of the 

 oenologische pomological school of Klosterneuburg near Vienna, 

 Austria. Written June 18, this letter informed him that Rathay, 



-'' Centr. f. Bah. II, 5(8): 279-287, 1899. 



^^(3): 102-104; also, Proc. Am. Asso. Adv. Sci. 47: 411, 1898. 

 -*Dr. Alfred Fischer in the role of pathologist, Centr. f. Bakt. II, 5(23): 810- 

 817, 1899. 



