REVIEW 
An Introduction to | Bacterial Diseases | of Plants | by | Erwin F. Smith | in 
charge of Laboratory of Plant Pathology, | Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, | United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C. | [inscription and motto, 7 lines] | Philadelphia and London | W. 
B. Saunders Company | 1920 | Cloth, pp. i-xxx -f- 1-688, including 
index. Price, $13.25. 
Dr. Erwin F. Smith has been associated with the study of 
the bacteria in relation to plant diseases since the earliest 
days of the subject; in fact his insistence is almost entirely re- 
sponsible for the standards of experimentation in this subject 
which compare favorably with those from any other field of 
scientific endeavor. His knowledge of the development of the 
subject and his intimacy with the other earlier workers, for 
example, Burrill, Waite, and Arthur in America, and Wakker and 
Savastano in Europe, place him in a position to discuss the pres- 
ent and earlier status of this branch of science much more 
fluently and with more authority than any other person has 
been or will be able to do. 
The book is of chief merit to plant pathologists in that it re- 
flects the personality of Dr. Erwin Smith ; it will live long after 
Doctor Smith, perpetuating his scientific attitude which, even 
more than his many notable additions to our knowledge of plant 
diseases, is his greatest contribution to our profession. Doctor 
Smith discusses in his last chapters such subjects as ethics, ideas, 
cooperation in research, and the ownership of a man’s research — • 
subjects upon which few men have the courage to define their 
attitude. He is the only man in our science from whom we 
would take such a discussion, and we will appreciate it more 
as the years go on. 
Part I of the book is probably the first comparative discus- 
sion of the different bacterial diseases of plants and their causal 
organisms that we have had. Here also Doctor Smith’s per- 
sonal association with the researches on the diseases under 
discussion makes the work extremely valuable. If we should 
criticize we would ask Doctor Smith to present this discussion 
more in detail, from the wealth of knowledge he has on the 
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