197 
thither by the breezes. Disseminated in this manner they reach the 
leaves of the sorghum plants, upon which, in the presence of mists and 
rain, they multiply and pass through casual wounds or through stomates 
into the leaves, thence with the elaborated sap to the tissues of the 
stalk.” This hypothesis is supposed to be justified further by the obser¬ 
vation that the disease was more intense during the spring fogs and on 
manured soil where the development of such germs is common. This 
was the case at Castellammare, where the material for study was ob¬ 
tained. 
We have thus given in detail the account of these interesting inves¬ 
tigations (in fact this may be considered for the most part merely a 
free translation of the paper) though carried on five years ago, for the 
reason that no extended notice of the same has hitherto been given in 
this country. It was reviewed in the Botanisclies GentralbJatt XXIII, 
10 (1885). 
In the second paper “ Vindication of Priority,” Dr. O. Comes, after 
referring to Professor BurrilPs and our own investigations of the Sor¬ 
ghum disease, calls attention to his researches published in 1883 and 
maintains most positively that the disease studied by himself and Pro¬ 
fessor Palmeri is the same as that discovered by Professor Burrill in 
Illinois and further studied by us in Kansas. 
Professor BurrilPs accounts are as follows : “A Disease of Broom-corn 
and Sorghum,” in the eighth annual meeting of the Society for the Pro¬ 
motion of Agricultural Science, 1887, pages 30-36, and in the Fourteenth 
Eeport of the Board of trustees of the University of Illinois for the two 
years ending September 30,1888, pages 215-222 ; and “Disease Germs; 
another illustration of the fact that bacteria cause disease,” in The Mi¬ 
croscope, Vol. VII, No. 11, pages 321-331, taken from the Transactions 
of the American Society of Microscopists, 1887. Our accounts are as 
follows: “Preliminary Eeport on Sorghum Blight” *u Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, Kansas State Agricultural College, Bulletin No. 5, pages 50-60, 
December, 1888; and “Sorghum Blight” in the First Annual Eeport of 
the Kansas Experiment Station, State Agricultural College, for the 
year 1888, pages 281-315. 
It is not so clear to us as it is to Dr. Comes that the disease detected 
by him is the same as that studied by us, and for conclusive evidence 
we await further investigation on both sides. Dr. Comes dealt with a 
form of disease characterized by evident alcoholic (and acetic) fermen¬ 
tation. No fermentation whatever was detected either by Professor 
Burrill or ourselves. Stress it seems to us should be laid on this fact. 
He says, in reference to the microbe which he found, that he first 
thought he had to do with a saccharomycete, but convinced himself the 
following year that it was a schizomycete and referred to Clostridium 
butyricum (Pasteur),Praz. in “ II marciume delle radici e layommosi nella 
vite , Napoli, 1884” We would note in reference to this species thutae- 
14631—No. 4- % 
