18 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1436 



the University of Missouri, professor of anat- 

 omy; Dr. Richard V. Lamar, professor of 

 pathology; Dr. Virgil P. Sydenstricker, Au- 

 gusta, professor of medicine; Dr. Ealph H. 

 Chaney, Rochester, Minn., professor of sur- 

 gery, and Dr. Harry B. Neagle, Adrian, Mich., 

 professor of preventive medicine and hygiene. 

 Dr. Arthur J. Hill, of the department of 

 chemistry of Yale University, has been pro- 

 moted to an associate professorship in organic 

 chemistry, and Herbert W. Rinehart, Ph.D. 

 (Yale, 1922) has been appointed an instructor. 



Dr. Lloyd L. Snail, of the University of 

 Washington, has been promoted to an assistant 

 professorship of mathematics. 



Dr. HArsY V. Atkinson, of the University 

 of Illinois Medical School, has been appointed 

 associate professor of pharmacology in the 

 department of medicine of the University of 

 Texas. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 



BACTERIAL PLANT DISEASES IN THE 

 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



That fungus diseases of plants are nimierous 

 and destructive in the Philippine Islands is a 

 well established fact. The extent of damage 

 resulting from this class of organisms is great. 

 Cane is reduced by Fiji disease up to 30 per 

 cent.; the mung bean has suffered so severely 

 that entire crops have been total losses, seed- 

 lings of tobacco, tomato and some other plants 

 are severely handicapped by being parasitized 

 by soil harbored fungi. Rusts take their toll 

 yearly, not to mention the serious losses due 

 to forest and timber destroying fungi. 



On the other hand, bacterial diseases are 

 scarce and especially so on hosts which have 

 not been introduced from a temperate climate. 



Tobacco and other solanaceous as well as 

 some non-solanaeeous plants are attacked by 

 Bacterium solanacearum E. F. S., an organism 

 which, without a doubt, has been introduced 

 with certain host plants from temperate re- 

 gions. 



Citrus is attacked by the citrus canker or- 

 ganism, cabbage by Pseudomonas campestris 



(Pamm.) E. F. S., beans by Pseudomonas 

 phaseoli E. F. S., cotton by Ps. malvacearum 

 E. F. S., and parsley by an organism not pre- 

 viously described. So far as present informa- 

 tion is concerned these bacterial diseases repre- 

 sent the entire number which are parasitic on 

 economic hosts in central and southern Luzon. 

 With the possible exception of citrus canker 

 and the previously undescribed disease of 

 parsley none of the diseases, or even more, 

 none of the hosts are indigenous to the Philip- 

 pines and there is no doubt that the diseases 

 were imported for the most part with the hosts, 

 from temperate regions. 



The writer has been searching carefully for 

 bacterial diseases and has made many isolations 

 from numerous hosts in an effort to discover 

 the cause of certain unreported maladies. In 

 every case, with the exception of the parsley 

 disease, no bacterial organism capable of 

 initiating disease was found. 



The scarceness of bacterial diseases is obvi- 

 ous and those which are commonly found, with 

 the exception of citrus canker, have been 

 brought, in all probability, with their respective 

 hosts. This statement holds true for central 

 and southern Luzon, only, for no work has 

 been possible elsewhere. 



Colin G. Welles 



College of Agriculture, 

 Los Banos, p. I. 



SWORDFISH TAKEN ON TRAWL LINES 

 Mr. Henry D. Whiton, of New York, re- 

 cently informed me of the capture of several 

 swordfishes near New York late in December, 

 on trawl lines set for tilefish, the information 

 coming to him through Mr. Haroldson, the 

 sailing master of his yacht. At my request Mr. 

 Whiton asked the sailing master to look up 

 details. He reported that four schooners took 

 13 swordfishes as follows : William A. Morse 2, 

 Columbia 3, Ruth M. Martin 3, and Benjamin 

 W. Latham 5. The swordfishes were all entan- 

 gled in trawl lines set for tilefish at a point 

 110 miles southeast of Ambrose Channel light- 

 ship, the trawels being set at depths varying 

 from 95 to 125 fathoms. All the swordfishes 

 were taken during the period between Decern- 



