April 26, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



671 



omitted by Dr. Eastman in his note upon 

 the disputed eruptions- of Vesuvius are L. 

 Kiccio, ' Bibliografia della eruzione vesu- 

 viana dell'anno 1631,' in Arch. 8tor. Napol., 

 XIV., pp. 437 et seq., and the most exhaustive 

 bibliography of Vesuvian eruptions that I 

 know about, that compiled by Herr Furcheim 

 (E. Prass, Naples, 1897). This latter is a 

 work that took many years to complete. 



As Professor B. Croce, of Naples, says, the 

 terrible eruption of 1631 produced a great 

 corpus of scientific and poetic literature con- 

 cerning it. Perhaps the most noted of the 

 literati vpho treated of it was Qiambattista 

 Basile (1575-?-1632) the celebrated author 

 of the Pentameron entitled Lo Cunto de li 

 Cunti, one of the chief monuments of Ne- 

 apolitan dialect. One of the three sonnets 

 which Basile composed upon the memorable 

 occasion is a masterpiece of poetic visualiza- 

 tion: 



Con vomero di foco, alto stupore, 

 Mostruoso arator solca il terreno, 

 E il seme degl'incendii accoltoal seno 

 Vi sparge, e'l riga di fervente umore. 



E, quindi, a, fecondarlo in rapid'hore, 

 Di cenere ben ampio, ilrende pieno; 

 Onde, quanto circonda il mar Tirreno, 

 Messe raccoglie di profondo horrore. 



Ma, se danno produce a noi mortali 

 Cotanto aspro Vesuvio; ond'ogni loco 

 Arde, nft seampo ei trova in mezzo al verno; 



Pur raccoglier ne giova in tanti mali 

 Dal cener sparse, e dal versato foco, 

 Membranza de la Morte, e dell'Inferno! 



In connection with this topic one ought not 

 to omit mention of the eruption of 1794 as 

 described by the historian and engineer Gen- 

 eral Colletta in his Storia di Napoli. 



T. D. Bergen 



Cambbidqe, Mass. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A PLANT-TUMOR OF BACTERIAL ORIGIN 



The number of vegetable galls known posi- 

 tively, i. e., by exact experiment, to be due to 

 bacteria, is not very great. The discovery of 

 a new one of undoubted bacterial origin is. 



therefore, of considerable interest to plant 

 pathologists, and may be of some interest to 

 animal pathologists, especially to those in- 

 terested in determining the origin of cancer- 

 ous growths. 



For two years the writers have been study- 

 ing a tumor or gall which occurs naturally on 

 the cultivated marguerite, or Paris daisy. It 

 has been difficult to isolate the organism and 

 to demonstrate it unmistakably in stained 

 sections. Recently the bacteria (seen in small 

 numbers in the unstained tissues on the start) 

 have been plated out successfully. With sub- 

 cultures from poured plate colonies, thus ob- 

 tained, the galls have been reproduced 

 abundantly and repeatedly during the last few 

 months, the inoculations having been made by 

 needle-pricks. From galls thus produced the 

 organism has been reisolated in pure culture 

 and the disease reproduced, using subcultures 

 from some of the colonies thus obtained and 

 puncturing with the needle as before. More 

 than 300 galls have been produced by puncture 

 inoculations. Under the most favorable con- 

 ditions (young tissues) the swellings begin to 

 be visible in as short a time as four or five 

 days, and are well developed in a month, but 

 continue to grow for several months, and be- 

 come an inch or two in diameter. 



In some of our experiments one hundred per 

 cent, of the inoculations have given positive 

 results (40 punctures out of 40 in one series; 

 62 punctures out of 62 in another), while the 

 check plants have remained free from tumors, 

 and also, in nearly every case, the check 

 punctures on the same plant. In the two 

 series just mentioned there were 110 check 

 punctures on the same plants, all of which 

 healed normally and remained free from galls. 

 Old tissues are not very susceptible. The 

 tumors grow rapidly only in young fleshy 

 organs. The organism attacks both roots and 

 shoots. It frequently induces abnormal 

 growths on the wounded parts of young cut- 

 tings. Its power to produce hyperplasia is 

 not confined to the marguerite. Well-de- 

 veloped small tumors have been produced in a 

 few weeks on the stems of tobacco, tomato 

 and potato plants and on the roots of sugar 

 beets. More interesting economically is the 



