Rl-SEARf H OX Fl AM- 'rUMOHS 491 



the relation of moldy corn to pellagra deserve[d] renewed atten- 

 tion." The Bureau's microbiological laboratory under Thorn was 

 established the next year. Special inquiries and requests for cul- 

 tures and other materials were referred by the Laboratory of Plant 

 Pathology to this and other laboratories. For instance, Thaxter in 

 December, 1914, requested cultures of Citrornyces citric us. Smith 

 suggested that he apply to Dr. C-E. A. Winslow, curator of public 

 health of the American Museum of Natural History of New York 

 or Miss Westerdyk of the Willie Commelin Scholten of Amster- 

 dam. Since, however, word recently had come that, owing probably 

 to World War I, the latter's cultures had been lost, he doubted 

 whether such could be obtained from there or from Wehmer. 

 " The .bother of keeping organisms going," Smith explained, 



is so great that in recent years I have limited my efforts principally to those 

 I am specially interested in and even these disappoint me frequently. . . . 

 Before sealing my letter I thought best to make some inquiries of other 

 laboratories in the Dept[artmen]t. No one has C. citrictis, or any other 

 Citromyces unless some citric acid producing sp[ecie]s of Penicillium are 

 that. 



Thom who has studied in Wehmer's laboratory recently says W[ehmer} 

 told him that he had found other fungi producing citric acid and that his 

 generic distinction based on this character '" would not hold." ... I under- 

 stood Thom that W[ehmer] now thinks there are many species of C[itro- 

 myces] and that he [Thom] on the contrary doubts if there are any, i. e., 

 any distinct from Penicillium. The Dep[artmen]t has species of the latter 

 that produce citric acid and these I can get for you, I think, if you wish. 

 They were isolated from Am[erican} soil by Thom and seem to come near 

 to W[ehmer}'s citromyces. They have been sent to W[ehmer] and 

 received by him, but he has not yet worked them over. 



Should anyone doubt that Smith was familiar with technical 

 principles involved in the study of bacterial antagonism, that 

 person should examine his treatment of " Mixed Cultures and 

 Mixed Infections " in the first volume of Bacteria in Relation to 

 Plant Diseases.'*^ There he cited in the text a reference to the 

 " interesting paper on Antagonism " by William Dodge Frost of 

 the faculty in agricultural bacteriology of the University of Wis- 

 consin. Dr. Frost's article had been published in 1904 in the 

 first volume ^° of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Smith 

 described his " two new methods of studying this subject, viz., the 



" Pp. 72-74. " Pp. 599-640. 



