10 CULTURE METHODS AND TECHNIQUE 



the cultivation of fungi in the laboratory. This work has become 

 increasingly more important in recent years. Laboratory culture 

 methods were not generally applied to a study of the filamentous 

 fungi until some years after bacteriology had been revolutionized 

 by a series of important discoveries in this line of technique. It is 

 at once evident that the bacteria could never be studied advanta- 

 geously except through the establishment of pure-culture methods, 

 whereas the larger fungi were to the early systematists and mor- 

 phologists, organisms to be studied after the method applied to the 

 higher plants and animals. Prior to the new era in bacteriology 

 special methods were employed, it is true, in the germination of 

 fungous spores, and some notable experiments in artificial infec- 

 tion had been made. Nevertheless, after the introduction of pure- 

 culture methods in general bacteriological work had become well 

 established, plant pathologists were not slow to appropriate and, 

 in certain directions, to develop a technique which promised and 

 which has served to throw open the whole field of phytopathology 

 to research of a high order. 



I. THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF CULTURE 



METHODS 



NOTE. The following are some papers of interest in connection with the 

 early development of culture methods. 



KLEBS, E. Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Micrococcen. Arch. f. Exp. Path. u. 



Pharmakol 1 : 31-64. 1873. 

 COHX, F. Untersuch. liber Bacterien. Beitrage zur Biol. der Pflanzen 2 : 240- 



276. 1876. 

 LISTER, Jos. On the Lactic Fermentation and Its Bearings on Pathology. 



Trans. Path. Soc. London 29 : 425-467. 

 (Dilution methods for obtaining pure cultures, see p. 445.) 

 KOCH, ROUT. Zur Untersuchung von pathogenen Organismen. Mittheil a.d. 



Kais. Gesundheitsamte (Berlin) 1 : \-afi. pis. 1-14. 1881. 

 (Poured plate and streak method first described.) 

 PETRI, R. J. Eine Kleine Modification des Kochschen Plattenverfahrens. 



Centrbl. f. Bakt. 1 : 279-280. 1887. 

 (Description of the now common Petri dish.) 



Rapid development in isolation technique. The most fruitful 

 principles involved in bacteriological culture methods were the 

 outcome of work throughout not much more than a dozen years, 

 practically between 1873 and 1885. On the other hand, the bio- 

 logical facts encouraging and inspiring investigation in this field 



