Florida and (^alitornia Lahoratorils 271 



bug, Coretts tristis and the spotted beetle, Diabrotica 12-punctata. 

 He repeated, and extended, these. He rechecked his dessication 

 experiments. He retried some experiments to determine why he 

 had failed. The hist doxen points of his unfinished work read: 



Repeat experiments with acids, detcrmininq just the amount of lactic, 

 oxahc, mahc, and citric which will inhibit growth when used in potato 

 broth or beef bouillon or Dunham, l-ilter a tlask of carbonate of lime potato 

 broth, beef bouillon, or Savory & Moore's Dunham solution (in which 

 i^erm has been growini^ two weeks) through a Chamberland filter. Divide 

 fluid into two parts, boil one and use other unhcatcd to determine if a 

 ferment destroyed by heat is present, using as proof small sterile uncooked 

 pieces of stem or fruit containing vessels, the walls of which should 

 soften or be dissolved in one and not in the other. Isolate this ferment if 

 possible and determine its properties more accurately. How are the sugars 

 broken up.' By another ferment. Collect into one place from notes names 

 of all species attacked. Inoculate basal leaf of large vines and determine 

 accurately the rate of progress of the bacillus through the tissues (a) when 

 plant is trailing on ground, (b) when trained upright. It is of special 

 importance to settle two points, viz: (1) Must bacillus be present in 

 clogging numbers in vessels of each petiole before leaf blade will collapse? 

 (2) How long a time after the bacillus has entered the stem (wilt of 

 first leaf up shows entrance beyond doubt) before presence of germs can 

 be detected in vessels in uppermost part of stem either by culture methods 

 or by microscopic examination of stained sections. If transpiration current 

 actually moves in the lumen of the vessels it would seem as if this actively 

 motile organism ought to find its way to extremity of plant, at least in 

 small numbers, in a few hours after it enters the stem. If not, why 

 not.'' More careful anatomical-pathological studies from paraffin sections. 

 [Secure] microphotographs. Did not the ropy potato broths again become 

 fluid.' Look up in notes. Growth in Dunham plus sugar in fermentation 

 tubes. . . . Get together from notes all that relates to growth on alkaline 

 media of various grades of alkalinity. What degree of alkalinity inhibits 

 growth.' My four grades of gelatin good for this. Grow in F[ermentation] 

 hibes in peptone water (Witte's plus) 1% C.P.G. 



Two other points were included where the omission is noticed. 

 Smith planned to study the behavior of the organism on cooked 

 cocoanut and on stewed pineapple. More important, he planned 

 to repeat what he described as his " hydrogen experiment," using 

 sugar agar this time, and he styled this an experiment in " Facul- 

 tative anaerobism." On December 4 he had made what he called 

 an anaerobic or buried culture, that is, one flourishing w^ithout free 

 oxygen, and begun stiidying this on January 5, 1895 together with 

 pure cultures of Bacillus tracbeiphilus. 



