Erwin Frink Smith
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Erwin Frink Smith (January 21, 1854 – April 6, 1927) was an American
plant pathologist Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease ...
with the
United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...
. He played a major role in demonstrating that bacteria could cause
plant disease Plant diseases are diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like or ...
.


Life and career

Smith was born in Gilbert Mills, near Fulton, New York, to Rancellor King Smith and Louisa Frink Smith. In 1870 he moved with his family to an 80-acre farm, which eventually included an apple orchard, in Clinton County, Michigan. The Smith family eventually moved to North Plains Township, Michigan. Smith was finally able to attend Ionia High School, starting in 1876, when he was 22 years old. Smith was largely self-taught in
botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
,
bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the Morphology (biology), morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the iden ...
, and languages, reading widely in French, German and Italian. In 1881, while still in high school, he co-authored a book on the flora of Michigan titled "Cataloque of the Phaenogamous and Vascular Cryptogamous Plants of Michigan" with Charles F. Wheeler. Charles Fay Wheeler (1842–1910) was a pharmacist and amateur botanist in
Ionia, Michigan Ionia ( ) is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Ionia County, Michigan, United States. The population was 13,378 at the 2020 census. Every July it hosts what is said to be the world's largest free-admission fair, the Ionia Free Fair ...
. He tutored Smith in botany and French when Smith was in high school. Smith was next employed by the State Board of Health of Lansing, Michigan, while also studying intermittently at Michigan Agricultural College. In 1885 Smith published a book on water sanitation. Smith was accepted to the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in 1885 and passed examinations for most of the coursework soon after acceptance, which allowed him to earn his bachelor's degree in biology in 1886 after only one year at the university. On September 20, 1886, Smith took a position in the Mycological Section of the Division of Botany of the US Department of Agriculture, assisting
Frank Lamson-Scribner Frank Lamson-Scribner (April 19, 1851 – February 22, 1938) was an American botanist and pioneering plant pathologist. In 1885, he became the first scientist to study the diseases of economic plants for the United States Department of Agricultur ...
. He mapped the occurrence of potato rot in the United States for 1885, and of '' Plasmopara viticola'' for 1886, but spent most of his early career (1887-1892) studying the plant diseases peach yellows (1886-1892) and peach rosette (1888-1891). He earned his doctorate from Michigan in 1889 for his work on peach yellows. In 1892, Smith began working on bacterial diseases in plants, starting with bacterial wilt in gourds (''
Cucurbitaceae The Cucurbitaceae (), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family (biology), family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera.
''). Throughout his career, Smith pursued the hypothesis that bacteria were significant causes of plant disease, painstaking describing more than 100 bacterial diseases of plants. Resistance to the idea of a bacterial basis, which Smith debated with German scientist Alfred Fischer in the 1890s, eventually gave way. Smith published his exhaustive work ''Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases'' in three volumes in 1905, 1911, and 1914. Further work was published in his textbook ''Bacterial Diseases of Plants'' (1920). Smith was elected to the United States
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 1913, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1914, and the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1916.
Dutch American Dutch Americans () are Americans of Dutch and Flemish descent whose ancestors came from the Low Countries in the distant past, or from the Netherlands as from 1830 when the Flemish became independent from the United Kingdom of the Netherlan ...
botanical explorer Frank Nicholas Meyer worked for Smith in 1901, upon his arrival in the United States. At a time when it was unusual to do so, Smith was known for hiring many women at the Bureau of Plant industry, including botanists Nellie A. Brown, Mary K. Bryan, Florence Hedges, Lucia McCulloch, Agnes J. Quirk, Angie Beckwith, and
Charlotte Elliott Charlotte Elliott (18 March 1789 – 22 September 1871) was an English evangelical Anglican poet, hymn writer, and editor. She is best known by two hymns, Just As I Am (hymn), "Just As I Am" and "Thy will be done". Elliott edited ''Christian R ...
. Historian Margaret W. Rossiter cites this as an example of a harem effect.Margaret W. Rossiter, "Women Scientists in the United States Before 1920," ''American Scientist'' 62 (1974).Margaret W. Rossiter (1982). '' Women Scientists in America: struggles and strategies to 1940.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, In Smith's case, a factor in hiring women only as assistants may have been USDA's structural exclusion of women from taking the examinations that would have allowed them to enter the higher-ranking jobs for which they were qualified.Margaret W. Rossiter, ''Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940''. Many of Smith's assistants praised him for giving them research projects suited to their skills rather than confining them to the more limited tasks presumed by their job classifications. Erwin Smith married Charlotte May Buffet on April 13, 1893. Their marriage was a happy one, but tragically terminated by Charlotte's death on December 28, 1906, eight months after she was diagnosed with
endocarditis Endocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. It usually involves the heart valves. Other structures that may be involved include the interventricular septum, the chordae tendineae, the mural endocardium, o ...
. Smith celebrated her memory in an elegantly produced book of poetry and biography entitled ''For Her Friends and Mine: A Book of Aspirations, Dreams and Memories'' (1915)."Erwin F. Smith Papers: Biographical Note" at Library of Congress, Manuscript Division
/ref> Smith died on April 6, 1927, in Washington, D.C.. His ashes were scattered at
Woods Hole Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 78 ...
, Massachusetts. He was survived by his second wife, Ruth Warren Smith. The genus
Erwinia ''Erwinia'' is a genus of Enterobacterales bacteria containing mostly plant pathogenic species which was named for the famous plant pathologist, Erwin Frink Smith. It contains Gram-negative bacteria related to ''Escherichia coli'', '' Shigella ...
is named in Smith's honor.


References


External links


Erwin Frink Smith Papers
via
USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...
National Agricultural Library The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Locate ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Erwin Frink American botanists American phytopathologists American bacteriologists 1854 births 1927 deaths University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni People from Fulton, Oswego County, New York United States Department of Agriculture people Deaths from endocarditis Scientists from New York (state) Members of the American Philosophical Society