November 13, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



715 



■witii his chivalrous devotion to a " complete 

 mental system," and with his courage in the 

 use of his speculative imagination — ^he is a 

 veritable knight errant in petrology. 



J. P. Iddings 

 Batavia, Java, 

 August 3, 1914 



Bacteria in ReSlation to Plant Diseases. By 

 Erwin F. Smith, in charge of Laboratory 

 of Plant Pathology, Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 Volume three. Vascular Diseases (Con- 

 tinued). Washington, D. C. Published by 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 1914. Quarto, viii -I- 309 pp. 

 It is not so many years since we were assured 

 by some foreign bacteriologists that bacteria 

 did not and could not produce diseases of 

 plants. Less than a dozen years ago the 

 writer of this review took part in an impromptu 

 discussion in the bacteriological laboratory of 

 one of the German universities in which it 

 was vehemently contended on the one side that 

 American bacteriologists showed their incom- 

 petence by thinking that the bacteria they 

 found in plants had any pathological signif- 

 icance. Even pear blight was held to be due 

 to some other than bacterial action. The 

 sweeping assertion was made that no plant 

 diseases whatever were due to the presence of 

 bacteria. 



The three stately volumes which Dr. Smith 

 has already issued remind one of these recent 

 opinions, and one wonders what can now be 

 said by these same disbelievers in the patho- 

 genic relation of bacteria to the diseases of 

 plants. At any rate. Dr. Smith has here mar- 

 shaled an array of facts that must be stag- 

 gering to one who still feels that bacteria do 

 not cause plant diseases. 



The present volume deals about equally with 

 diseases of monocotyledons and dicotyledons, 

 principally with diseases of sugar-cane and 

 maize, and with those of potato, tomato and 

 tobacco. A full account is given of Stewart's 

 disease of sweet corn and all the evidence 

 going to show that it is disseminated on the 

 seed. The morphology and cultural char- 

 acters of Bacterium solanacearum which pro- 



duces the " Brown Rot " of potatoes and other 

 related plants are given in full. The destruc- 

 tive tomato disease, due to Aplanoiacter 

 michiganense, is also illustrated and distin- 

 guished from that due to Bacterium solan- 

 acearum. Growers of tobacco will find a sepa- 

 rate chapter on the bacterial wilts of tobacco. 

 Throughout the book are found more than 

 150 text illustrations, and 4Y full-page plates, 

 some of the latter colored. The reader will 

 share the author's satisfaction with the way 

 that the printer has been able by the use of 

 excellent paper and ink, and carefully selected 

 type, to bring out the text and the illustrations. 

 In passing it should be noted that only twenty- 

 nine of the illustrations are borrowed from 

 other authors, so that in this regard also this 

 book is a contribution to the literature of 

 plant pathology. 



Although this volume was issued in the 

 early part of August, 1914, it is known that the 

 manuscript left the author's hands about two 

 years earlier. During its slow progress through 

 the printer's hands Dr. Smith has added many 

 a paragraph and illustration, so that in fact 

 the volume has been brought down a® close 

 as possible to its date of issue. 



We need only pause a moment to call atten- 

 tion to the admirable index, which is all that 

 an index should be. It is first of all an alpha- 

 betical index of the topics treated and the 

 terms used, but, in addition, these are so sys- 

 tematically arranged that the index is a con- 

 spectus of the whole volume, and especially of 

 its various sections. 



As the writer of this review runs over this 

 volume and its predecessors he is still more 

 impressed with the feeling that some of these 

 days the botanists of this country must ask 

 very emphatically for a text-book on plant dis- 

 eases prepared by Dr. Smith. A text-book 

 from his hand could do much to place plant 

 pathology on a truly scientific basis. 



Charles E. Bessey 

 The University of Nebraska 



The Bacteriological Examination of Food and 

 Water. By W. G. Savage. Cambridge, Eng- 

 land, University Press. 



