Recognition oi I^i.am I^ac iliuolocv in I-uroft. 351 



thorout^hly convincing a presentation of the matter must close the mouths 

 ot other critics as well. I have been asked by Dr. Spalding to occupy an 

 evening — probably May IJth with reviews (before botanical seminar 

 here) of recent literature of bacterial and enzymal diseases of plants. 

 I shall qive your two publications a prominent place of course. It has 

 occurred to me that possibly you miyht be willing to aid so good a work 

 by permittini; copies to be made for me of some of your lantern slides — 

 providing you have an assistant capable of dong the photographic work. 

 I could then illustrate the review. . . . 



I am getting along pretty satisfactorily with my work on the B. caro- 

 tovorus enzym. Have succeeded in isolating the enzym by precipitation 

 methods and also in sterilizing the broth cultures without destroying the 

 enzym. Have done tlit latter by chemical agents — and more satisfactorily 

 by beat. The latter method has I think never heretofore been employed 

 and is a \^ry neat one. I heat tube cultures at 55° C for 10 minutes. This 

 temperature sterilizes them and leaves the enzym pretty active since that 

 does not weaken much until 58° C. But " don't say anything about it 

 yet " — I quote that as one of the things I learned at Washington. 



I have enzym action that far exxeeds that described by Potter in speed. 

 For example — sections of carrot immersed in the enzym solution show 

 distinct swelling of the walls of the cells within two minutes (instead of 

 12 hours as with his) complete swelling and solution of the middle 

 lamella within 20 minutes so that in less than a half hour the cells lose 

 their cohesiveness — i. e. the tissues have passed through all the charac- 

 teristic stages of the soft rot. 



Regarding oxalic acid, I have as yet failed to detect a trace of it in my 

 cultures but have not completed the search. The above action is in 

 absence of any free acids — neutral solution — hence I doubt if the presence 

 of such acid plays so prominent a part as Potter concluded. But I shall 

 know better about that before I am through. . . . 



R. A. Harper, Professor of Botany at the University of Wis- 

 consin and possessor of a doctorate of philosophy from the 

 University of Bonn, wrote: 



You do up Fischer in great shape. If he would do a little work of his 

 own in one line or another his judgments would be safer and gain more 

 attention. He has been trying to convince us for many years that we don't 

 know how to study nuclei but until he contributes something himself on 

 the subject he will continue to pass for a mere theorizer. 



The Canadian botanist A. H. Reginald Buller's inaugural dis- 

 sertation on " Die Wirkung von Bakterien auf tote Zellen " had 

 been done at the University of Leipzig in 1899. From Munich 

 he congratulated Smith " upon the manner in which you have 



