Abstract
Neither Vinogradskii’s scientific worldview nor his laboratory research translated easily into the ecological trends of soil science and geobotany. Although he did not participate in the expeditions himself, there are indications that he would have been familiar with their goals, organizational structure, and methodologies. As a new member of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, and a returning student of the St. Petersburg scientific circle, he maintained connections with his previous colleagues. He would have heard about the findings of the Dokuchaev expeditions, which were presented at the meetings of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists. He also had contact with the Forestry Institute, seeking their experts out for advice on managing the forests on his Ukrainian estate. Even in close proximity to these scientists, however, he did not adopt their Humboldtian, Darwinian, or ecological language.
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Notes
- 1.
During his years at St. Petersburg University’s botanical department, he had studied with Beketov. Vinogradskii may also have participated in the local excursions Beketov organized. See Chap. 2.
- 2.
Vinogradskii had been a member of the St. Peterburg Society of Naturalists since 1881. The reports from the expedition appeared in each of the sections of the society and were published in its journal. For a review of the activities of the society between 1888 and 1893, see Obzor Deiiatel’nosti St Peterburgskogo Obshchestva Estestvoispitatelei, 1893, Vol. XXV.
- 3.
Selman Waksman, Sergei N. Winogradsky: His Life and Work: The Story of a Great Bacteriologist (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 32–33.
- 4.
Beijerinck had recently discovered bacteria living in symbiosis with leguminous plants in their root nodules. M. W. Beyerinck, “Die Bacterien der Papilionaceen Knollchen,” Botanische Zeitung, No. 48, 1888, 769–771.
- 5.
Serge Winogradsky, Sur l’assimilation de l’azote gaseaux de l’atmosphère par les microbes, Comptes Rendus de Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, 1893, 1er Semestre, Vol. 116, No. 24, 1385–1388; Idem., Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des Seances de l’Académie des Sciences, Vol. 118, No. 7, 353–355.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
1892 Delevoi otchet Otdela Obshchei Mikrobiologii, Tsentral’nyi Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Archiv, St Peterburg, fond 2282, opis’ 1, delo 87, fond 2282, opis’ 1, delo 31, listy 24 ob.-25 ob.
- 9.
V. A. Fribes with Serge Winogradsky, “Sur le rouissage de lin et son agent microbien,” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 1895, CXXI, 742.
- 10.
1896 Delevoi otchet Otdela Obshchei Mikrobiologii, Tsentral’nyi Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Archiv, fond 2282, opis’ 1, delo 87, listy 37–37ob.
- 11.
Fribes visited the laboratory in 1899. 1899–1900 Delevoi otchet Otdela Obshchei Mikrobiologii, Idem., fond 2282, opis’ 1, delo 126, listy 146–146 ob.
- 12.
1892 Delevoi otchet Otdela Obshchei Mikrobiologii, Idem., fond 2282, opis’ 1, delo 31, listy 24 ob.-25 ob.
- 13.
Omelianskii’s publications during the 1890s include: S. Winogradsky and V. Omeliansky, “Ueber den Einfluss der Organischen Substanzen auf die Arbeit der nitrifizierenden Mikroben,” Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parisitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten, zweite abteilung: Allegemeine, landwirschaftlich-technologische Bakerteriologie, Garungsphysiologie, Pflanzenpathologie und Pflanzenschutz, May 1899, Vol. V, No. 10, 329–440; W. Omeliansky, “Ueber die Nitrifikation des organischen Stickstoffes,” Idem., July 1899, Vol. V, No. 13, 473–490; and V. Omeliansky, “Ueber die Isolierung der Nitrifikationsmikroben aus dem Erdboden,” Idem., No. 15, 537–549.
- 14.
V. L. Omelianskii, “Zadachi pochvennoi mikrobiologii,” a draft of his monograph Mikrobiologiia Pochvy, Archiv Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Peterburgskoi Filial, fond 892, opis’ 1, delo 11, list 1.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Ibid. 2–3.
- 19.
I borrow the metaphor “crystallized” from Robert P. McIntosh, The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 28. For a discussion of the synthesis of Humboldtian plant geography and physiology see: Ibid., 21–27; Cittadino, Nature as the Laboratory, 150–157; and Hagan, An Entangled Bank, 23–32.
- 20.
For their discussions of the role of physiology in their plant geography, see: Oscar Drude, Deutschlands Pflanzengeographie: Ein geographisches Charaterbild der Flora von Deutschland (Stuttgart: Verlag von J. Engelhorn, 1896), 24–26; and A. F. W. Schimper, “Forward,” in Pflanzen-Geographie auf Physiologischer Grundlage (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1898), iii–vi; Eugenius Warming, Lehrbuch der ökologischen Pflanzengeographie: Eine Einfuhrung in die Kenntnis der Pflanzenvereine (Berlin: Gebruder Borntraeger, 1896); and A. N. Beketov, Geografiia rastenii: Ocherk’ ucheniia o rasprostranenii i raspredelenii rastitel’nosti ha zemnoi poverkhnosti (S.-Peterburg: Tipografiia V. Demakova, 1896).
- 21.
Cittadino, Nature as the Laboratory, 147.
- 22.
Warming, Lehrbuch der ökologischen Pflanzengeographie, 3.
- 23.
For a discussion of how this compared to the German plant ecologists, see Ibid., 148.
- 24.
Warming, Lehrbuch der ökologischen Pflanzengeographie, 2
- 25.
Ibid., 6.
- 26.
Ibid., 3.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Ibid., 41–42.
- 29.
Ibid., 140. See Chap. 2 for a discussion of Warming’s sulphur bacteria research.
- 30.
Warming discussed nitrogen bacteria in, Ibid., 75–76.
- 31.
He had published his first botany textbook in 1883. Beketov, Geografiia rastenii, 1.
- 32.
Ibid., 3–4.
- 33.
Ibid., 4.
- 34.
Ibid., 12.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
Ibid., 16–17. For a discussion of the significance of Beketov’s concept of “life competition” for the reception of Darwinian theory in Russia, see Todes, Darwin without Malthus, 58–60.
- 37.
Ibid., 18.
- 38.
Letter from Vinogradskii to Elie Metchnikov dated 9 February 1894, Bor’ba za Nauku v Tsarskoi Rossii, 167.
- 39.
Ibid.
- 40.
This speech was later published as S. N. Vinogradskii, “O Roli Mikrobov v Obshchem Krugovorote Zhizni,” Arkhiv Biologicheskix Nauk, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1897, 1–27; for the quote see 26–27.
- 41.
Ibid., 5.
- 42.
Ibid., 5–6.
- 43.
Ibid., 6.
- 44.
Ibid., 7–8.
- 45.
Ibid., 10.
- 46.
Ibid., 14.
- 47.
Ibid., 16.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Ibid., 21–22.
- 50.
Ibid., 27.
- 51.
Ibid.
- 52.
Serge Winogradsky, “L’Influence des Substances Organiques sur le Travail des Microbes Nitrificateurs,” in Microbiologie du Sol: Problèmes et Méthodes—Cinquante Ans de Recherches (Paris: Masson et Cie, 1949), 234.
- 53.
Ibid., 235–238.
- 54.
Selman Waksman, Sergei N. Winogradsky: His Life and Work: The Story of a Great Bacteriologist (New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 1953), 32–33.
- 55.
Ibid.
- 56.
From a Russian outline of his professional activities “Copie d’un formulaire allemand sous l’occupation,” written when he was 86 years old (1942); Serge Winogradsky Papers, Service des Archives de l’Institut Pasteur, Box WIN 2, Folder Serge Winogradsky, Correspondance, France; see 1, 7.
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Ackert, L. (2012). Soil Science and Russian Ecology. In: Sergei Vinogradskii and the Cycle of Life. Archimedes, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5198-9_6
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