Under Ward’s guidance, Maria studied the life cycle of a relatively unknown fungus, Poronia punctate (Dawson, 1900), but their main collaboration arose from Ward’s longstanding interest in the nitrogen-fixing root nodules of leguminous plants (at the time called tubercles). Much progress was being made in German laboratories, but Ward’s mastery of the language, and personal contacts in that country, enabled him to keep abreast of the latest developments and make his own contribution. Thus, he was the first person to show that tubercles were formed when root hairs were infected by bacteria via a thread-like tube or filament (Ward, 1888). In the next decade the idea emerged, particularly from Germany, that plants might be inoculated with cultures of bacteria in order to promote their growth. Maria’s project was to test the effects of a commercial ‘germ-fertilizer’ called ‘Nitragin’.
MAKING BRITISH BOTANY
MARIA DAWSON
If Harry Marshall Ward had a weakness it was that ‘he did not have a string of postgraduate students and visiting workers passing through his laboratory’ (Ayres, 2005), men or women who would build on his work after they left Cambridge. Was it that he found collaboration difficult? Did his manner frighten away potential students? Possibly. According to the tribute that ‘MD’ wrote after his death, speaking of the ‘kindly welcome’ he/she received on coming up to Cambridge to begin research under his supervision, and adding ‘… at all times his attitude to his students was that of comrade and fellow-worker, rather than Professor and critic’, ‘MD’ did note that his criticisms could be severe and unreserved although his praise was spontaneous and sincere. He was, most importantly, ‘… continually on the watch for opportunities when he might use his influence on behalf of those he considered worthy’ (Ayres, 2005, p.138).
Could it be that ‘MD’ was Maria Dawson, the very first female graduate of the University College of South Wales who used her ‘1851 Exhibition Research Studentship’ to work with Ward for three years from 1897. The tribute (above), from a Cambridge address, might have been written when she was back in the city teaching at the Cambridgeshire School for Boys.
After a first winter of microscopy, studying the infection process, Maria Dawson used the summers of 1898-1900 and the University Botanic Garden to examine the effects that artificial inoculation had on plant growth. It proved a difficult project because the induction of nodule formation, and any beneficial effects on growth, each proved small and unreliable. She concluded that the usefulness of Nigracin and other inoculants would depend on nutrient levels in the soil and the soil’s existing bacterial flora. At the end of her studentship she was nevertheless the sole author of two full length papers, one in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1899) which had been ‘Communicated by Professor H Marshall Ward’, and the other in the Annals of Botany (1901), wherein she wrote, ‘I had the privilege of the invaluable help and advice of Professor Marshall Ward, and I wish to take this opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness to him’. Language reminiscent of ‘MD’’s.
After obtaining a D.Sc. from the University of London, and a brief spell lecturing at University College, Aberystwyth, Maria returned to a career in school teaching.
References (for Dale and Dawson)
Ayres, PG. 2005. Harry Marshall Ward and the Fungal Thread of Death. St. Paul, MN.: American Phytopathological Society.
Dale, Elizabeth M. 1900. Scenery and Geology of the Peak of Derbyshire. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd.
Dawson, Maria. 1899. I. “Nitragin” and the nodules of leguminous plants. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 192, 1-28.
Dawson, Maria. 1900. On the biology of Poronia punctata (L). Annals of Botany, 14, 245-267.
Dawson, Maria. 1901. On the economic importance of “Nitragin”. Annals of Botany, 15, 511-519.
Dale, Elizabeth. 1901. Notes on artificial cultures of Xylaria. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 11, 100-102.
Dale, Elizabeth. 1903. Observations of Gymnoascaceae. Annals of Botany, 17, 571-596.
Dale, Elizabeth. 1914. On the fungi of the soil. II. Fungi from chalky soil, uncultivated mountain peat and the ‘black earth’ of reclaimed Fenland. Annales Mycologici, 12, 33-62.
Ward, HM. 1888. On the tubercular swellings on the roots of Vicia faba. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 178, 539-562.
Ward, HM & Dale, Elizabeth. 1898. On Craterostigma pumilum, Hochst., a rare plant from Somaliland. Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany, 5, 343-355.
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Charlotte Gibson, or return to
Women Inspired by Marshall Ward.