i8 



BACTERIA IN RELATION TO PLANT DISEASES. 



If all experimenters in plant pathology, e^-en in recent }ears, had been careful 

 to conform to these four rules of practice, the first three of which in essence were 

 formulated by Robert Koch as long ago as 1882, some very deep chagrins might 

 have been avoided. 



Owing to insurmountable difficulties man}' animal pathologists, especially those 

 who study human diseases, now freciuently rely on the first two rules as sufficient, 

 but, if possible, one should comply also with r and d. Plant pathologists are under 

 no such limitations, and should conform to each one of the above-mentioned require- 

 ments, particularh' if they desire their work to take high rank and to be generally 

 accepted as conclusive. IMaterial for plant-inoculation experiments is so cheap and 

 easily procured that a writer who undertakes to describe a bacterial disease of plants 

 has usually no good excuse for lea%dng any doubt whate\'er as to the pathogenic 

 properties of the organism. There is also no excuse for limiting the inoculations 

 to mixtures of bacteria or to crude material taken directly from the diseased plant, 

 since every t}-ro in bacteriology- now knows how to separate one organism from 

 another in nutrient agar or gelatin by means of poured plates or Petri-dish cultures. 





;\l 



IMORPJIOLOGY. 

 SIZE, SH.\PE, ETC. 



The smallest observed bacteria are only a small fraction of a micron in diameter. 

 Migula states that the stained rods of Ps. indigofera (Voges) Mig. from colonies 36 

 hours old measured only 0.18 by 0.06 micron. Bacillus deiiitriftcaiis (Amp. & Gar.) 

 Mig. is also a very small rod — i.o to 1.5 by o. i to 0.3 micron, according to Migula. 

 Micrococcus progredicns vSchroter is said to be only 0.15 micron in diameter. The 

 organism of peri-pneumonia isolated b}- Nocard & Roux is more minute. It is 

 probable also that still smaller organisms occur, /. c, so small as to be invisible under 

 the highest magnifications. In this wa)- are interpreted the results obtaiired by 

 animal pathologists in the foot-and-mouth disease and in some other diseases. 

 Photographs with ultra violet light may in tlie end render some service here. The 



*FiG. II. — (7, Capsule of organism obtained from Wacl^ .sjiot of the pKim. Bacteria grown in 

 Uschinsky's solution and stained by Ribbert's mctliod; /', ropy Uscliinsky solntion from which 

 a was made. 



