Mat 22, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



753 



bacteria known as anaerobic, whose activities 

 are intolerant of tbe presence of oxygen. 

 ■' Smith's culture tube " has long been held in 

 high esteem in the outfit of the bacterial labo- 

 ratory. 



But as early as 1890, Dr. Smith called at- 

 tention to the fact that anaerobic bacteria are 

 exacting not only in their relations to oxygen, 

 but in their food requirements also; and he 

 suggested, and proved, that attention to the 

 latter gave promise of important results in the 

 study of this class of germs. He then, and has 

 repeatedly, urged that the addition to the fluid 

 media in the tubes in which such organisms 

 are commonly grown, of small pieces of sterile 

 animal organs, such as the kidney, fulfil the 

 required nutrient conditions. The repeated 

 hint remained practically unheeded for some 

 twenty years. Then through its adoption 

 Noguchi, at the Rockefeller Institute, was able 

 for the first time to cultivate the spirochete 

 •which is the inciting agent of syphilis, as well 

 as several others of its class which have 

 hitherto resisted all the wiles and blandish- 

 ments of the most accomplished bacteriologists, 

 in the framing of the conditions of culture 

 and the tender of food. With these cultures 

 available Noguchi has made practicable and 

 safe a test — the luetin test — for the most 

 subtle and obscure forms of syphilis. Thus 

 the way is now open for the more ready detec- 

 tion of this sinister disease, for the study on a 

 solid basis of the conditions under which it is 

 manifested; how its protean characters are 

 determined; and what rational methods for its 

 cure may be conducted. Similarly, scarcely 

 more than a year ago, Flexner and Noguchi, 

 by an adaptation of Dr. Smith's long ignored 

 suggestion about the food requirements of 

 anaerobes, have been led to the discovery of the 

 nature of the virus of infantile paralysis, iso- 

 lating it in cultures maintained through many 

 generations and clearing the way toward a 

 hopeful outlook for the prevention and perhaps 

 the cure of this pitiful malady. 



One of Professor Smith's striking achieve- 

 ments is the establishment, through long and 

 patient studies, of a type of the tubercle ba- 

 cillus which has become especially adapted to 



cattle and now is known as the " bovine type " 

 of the tubercle bacillus. The delimitation of 

 this organism and its differentiation from 

 the human type have made possible a series of 

 exact researches by others on the frequency 

 of the occurrence of the bovine bacillus in man. 

 And thus to-day those who are engaged in 

 the long and stubborn fight against the spread 

 of tuberculosis are on firm ground when they 

 enter the field of meat and milk contamina- 

 tion, to determine the measures which must 

 be taken to safeguard them at their source. 



These are some of the landmarks in Dr. 

 Smith's achievements during this quarter of a 

 century of incredible activities on evei-y hand, 

 in the discovery of microbic disease incitants, 

 of the things they do, and the reactions of 

 those individuals of the higher sort who in the 

 vicissitudes of life may become their hosts 

 and their victims. 



As the eye ranges over the stately bibliog- 

 raphy which marks these years of Dr. Smith's 

 scientific activities, it rests upon many titles 

 with stories in them, of a period or a halting 

 point, in the growing knowledge of disease and 

 its incitants, upon which the author's wide 

 range of thought, his unventuresome sagacity, 

 and breadth of vision have cast helpful and 

 inspiring light. 



While Professor Smith gets down to the 

 humdrum details of exact research and record 

 when it is necessary — and it often is neces- 

 sary in all the ups and downs of the common 

 road of fruitful biological research — the qual- 

 ity which is perhaps most characteristic is 

 the larger view impressed upon all his prob- 

 lems. The biological point of view, if the 

 reader please, in which the individuality of 

 the living thing Dr. Smith sees bears in every 

 feature the marks of its heredity and environ- 

 ment. The tubercle bacillus, for example, is 

 to him not something which has just happened, 

 in the human and animal kind. The bacillus 

 gets his day in court, and is as much a part of 

 the scheme of things as is his more imposing 

 host. What happens when they meet in a 

 many-sided conflict of adaptation, and the 

 problems which gather about it are to be 



