Researc;!! on Plant 'Id mors 477 



Vienna he bought "" one new book " and '" a \ery iniportant one 

 for our work," he wrote to his laboratory co-workers.'^' This was 

 Microchemie der PjLinzen, by Dr. Hans Molisch, " tlic leading 

 botanist here in Vienna. . . . The book," he explained, " has 

 soniethint; in it on the alkalinity of protoplasm and especially of 

 that of the nucleus, and gives some tests which we may able to 

 apply to the tissues of crowngall i. e., to determine whether my 

 theory that the nuclear contents of the daisy is alkaline, as I 

 suppose." His plan was that, if a chemist could be associated 

 \\ ith them, they might translate the book into English. " It would 

 prove very useful nof only for us in the doing," he said, " but for 

 many English reading students," and he was very much pleased 

 when in July, 1921, he received from Molisch a second edition 

 of it. . ' 



Dr. Molisch himself had shown Smith a copy, and they had 

 " a delightful visit of a couple of hours." Then most of his time 

 that week was " spent at the K. K. Oenologisches und Pomolo- 

 gisches Institut at Klosterneuberg about twelve miles north of 

 Vienna near the Danube," where Felix von Thiiman, the mycol- 

 ogist, had been, and where Dr. Linsbauer was now director of 

 the Lehr-Anstalt. There he examined the materials of Emerich 

 Rathay on a bacterial disease of orchard grass. -^ Before leaving 

 for Europe, Smith had received from Denmark specimens of a 

 disease of orchard grass which resembled a description by Rathay 

 in 1899 of "a bacteriosis of Dactylis glomerata." hi 1911, on 

 Maryland carnations, he also had found what seemed to be this 

 same disease. He, therefore, had prepared for Science " an article 

 entitled, "A New Type of Bacterial Disease." In this malady 

 the chief growth of the parasite appears on the surface between 

 closely appressed organs. The question yet remained, however, 

 whether the Danish and Austrian diseases were one and the same. 

 In oak woods on the Kahlenberg v^'here Rathay had collected his 

 material. Smith found fragmentary specimens, and brought them 

 back to America. In a hot house in Washington a diseased plant 



faciens, and some potential studies of filtrates, Jour. Agric. Res. 39(7): 503-530, 

 1929 (considers work 1921-1922 etc. of F. D'Herelle on the bacteriophage). 



■"Letter written at Vienna November 1, 1913. 



"^ Bacteria in relation to plant diseases 3: 160. 



"N. s. 38(991): 926, Dec. 26, 1913. Also, Introduction to bacterial diseases of 

 plants, op. cit., 48, and authorities cited. 



