Abstract
AN authoritative account of bacterial plant diseases has long been a desideratum, and no investigator more competent than Mr. Erwin Smith, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whq has himself made important original contributions to the subject, could be found to undertake such a task. The bacterial diseases of plants are, however, only incidentally mentioned in this, the first volume of the work, which is mainly devoted to methods of investigation and to a bibliography of the general literature of bacteriology, exclusive of plant diseases. As a guide to general bacteriological methods we know no better, though, as it is a preliminary to plant bacteriology, methods specially applicable to pathogenic organisms attacking men and animals are necessarily not to be found. Sterilisation, the preparation of culture media, methods of infection, the investigation of chemical products, keeping of records, and equipment of the laboratory are all dealt with very fully, explanatory figures being used liberally. A considerable section is also devoted to an account of photomicrography. The difficult question of the nomenclature and classification of bacteria is critically discussed at considerable length, and forms an excellent summary of the whole subject. At the end of the volume a number of useful formulal for stains, etc., is collected, and the bibliography, which extends over sixty-four pages, and index complete the work. The volume is excellently illustrated with thirty-one plates and 146 figures in the text. We congratulate Mr. Smith on this, the first, though perhaps the easier, portion of his task, and shall await the appearance of the next volume with considerable interest.
Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases.
By Erwin F. Smith. Vol. i. (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute, 1905.) Pp. xii + 285.
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HEWLETT, R. Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases . Nature 74, 294 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/074294b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/074294b0
