1896.] The Bacterial Diseases of Plants : 719 
(II) THE organism.—This is described as a bacillus, but not 
named. 
(1.) Pathogenesis. 
(A) Yes. 
(B) Yes. Rather easy. 
(C) No. These inoculations led to no satisfactory result, 
and had to be abandoned, because no suitable beet 
material was at the experimenter’s disposal. 
(D) No. 
Conclusion—Pathogenic nature rendered probable. The rea- 
son for this judgment in opposition to the above statements 
will be found in the following paragraph. 
While Dr. Kramer was not able to secure infections, owing 
probably to the unfavorable conditions under which he worked, 
he hit upon an ingenious method of indirect proof, viz., the 
development in pure cultures of the same gum which is formed 
naturally in the diseased beets. His method was as follows: 
The softened or liquefied parts of the diseased beets were cut 
out, crushed and heated on a water bath, with the addition of 
a small quantity of milk of lime. The fluid was then decanted, 
and the remaining mass of beet squeezed as dry as possible and ` 
the two fluids mixed, filtered, and carbon dioxid passed into the 
filtrate for the removal of the somewhat superfluous lime. The 
fluid was again filtered and concentrated on the water bath. 
The fluid was now rendered acid by the addition of some drops 
of acetic acid, and a white, tough, gum-like substance was 
precipitated out of it by the addition of 96 per cent. alcohol. 
To obtain it in a pure condition this substance was repeatedly 
dissolved in water and reprecipitated by alcohol. The same 
substance was obtained directly from the gummy ooze of the 
diseased beets by dissolving it in water, heating, filtering, con- 
centrating on the water bath, and precipitating with alcohol. 
In this case also the precipitate was a white, tough, gum-like 
substance. Both of these precipitates were tested chemically 
with the following results. Mixed with soda-lime and heated 
in a test tube there was no formation of ammonia, a proof that 
the substance was free from nitrogen. Boiled with orcin and 
hydrochloric acid it gave the well-known gum reaction, men- 
