John William Hotson (May 2, 1869 - August 22, 1957) was an American botanist and a professor of botany at University of Washington. He was a founder of the herbarium at the University of Washington and a pioneer of the systematic study of bulbiliferous anamorphic fungi. He was the first to make a comprehensive study of plant rust in the state of Washington. [1]
John William Hotson, the son of George Hotson and Elizabeth Jane Vincent, was born in Innerkip, Ontario. He and Sarah Jane Doak married in 1911 in Didsbury, Alberta. They had two children, Jean Hotson and Hugh Howison Hotson. [2]
Hotson received undergraduate (1901) and master's degrees (1902) [3] from McMaster University in Toronto, Ontario. [4] In 1910, after a year of teaching botany at Pomona College, [4] [5] he quit his position with the intention to attend Harvard University for doctoral studies. At Pomona, he was described as "a fine scholar and an efficient teacher, and it was with regret that his resignation was accepted." [5]
Prior to attending Harvard, Hotson attended, as a graduate student, the University of Chicago, 1902 (summer and fall), Cornell University, 1903 (winter), Teachers' College, Columbia University, 1903 (spring), and Clark University, 1903 (summer). [4] After a period working as an instructor and school principal in Guelph, Ontario, Hotson continued his studies as a graduate student at the University of Chicago (1906-1907) and then at Harvard University (1910). He was awarded a doctorate in botany from Harvard in 1913. [4] [6]
During his time as a graduate student, Hotson had a number of teaching positions, including, lecturer in botany, Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Ontario (1903–1904), and as a Principal in the Macdonald Consolidated Schools, Guelph, Ontario (1904). Hotson was also an Austen Teaching Fellow in botany, Harvard University (1907–1908) and assistant professor of botany, Pomona College (1908–1910). [4] As a graduate student at Harvard, Hotson was also an instructor (1910–11). [4]
Hotson was hired in 1911 as an instructor in the newly founded Department of Botany at the University of Washington, where he was promoted to assistant professor of botany in 1914 and associate professor of botany in 1936. He continued to research and teach until his retirement as a full professor in 1947. [4] After his retirement he was a research consultant in the department of botany. [7] At his death in 1957, he was a Professor Emeritus of Botany at Washington. [8]
During his tenure at the University of Washington, Hotson took on several roles. The Department of Botany became a separate entity within the university in 1900, and Hotson was one of the first three instructors when he joined in 1911; the other two being George Rigg and Theodore Christian Frye, the latter becoming Head of the Botany Department in 1903. [9]
Hotson organized the "first fungus herbarium at Washington and many of his specimens are cited in treatments of Agaricus, Amanita, and other genera of agarics." [10] Many of his samples created a basis for the Washington herbarium's collection, which is evidenced in both the herbarium collections at Washington as well as at the Harvard University Herbaria. [11]
Hotson acted as supervisor of graduate students during his tenure, including University of Washington president, Dr. Henry Schmitz (1952–1958). [12]
John William Hotson's research and publications were primarily on fungi, though, during World War I, Hotson researched the use of Sphagnum moss as a material for surgical dressings and a replacement for cotton dressings, Sphagnum as a surgical dressing, [13] was published in Science in 1918.
Indigenous peoples in North America had been using Sphagnum moss for medicinal use as "salve for application on cuts." [14]
Long recognized for its absorbency, Sphagnum moss has been employed as a diaper material, as a feminine hygiene product, and for bandages. J.D. Davis and Banack (2012) recorded that among the Kiluhikturmiut Inuinnait of Nunavut, Canada, Sphagnum was used for menstrual pads, diapers, and bandages. On Nunivak Island, Alaska, the Nunivaarmiut (Yup'ik) made diapers by placing dried Sphagnum in a scraped and softened seal skin. The Wet'suwest'en and Gitxsan peoples of British Columbia also made use of Sphagnum for diapers… [15]
In fact,
Sphagnum has long been used for making absorbent bandages. For centuries, country people in the British Isles have used it in the treatment of boils and discharging wounds. It was at least recommended, during the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian wars, for use by army surgeons. Sphagnum was first used surgically in a large way during the Russo-Japanese war when the Japanese utilized it extensively as a first-aid dressing. [16]
What Hotson's research realized was that the value of sphagnum in surgery, which was
not fully appreciated until World War I, and by the end of the war the total British output of sphagnum dressings is estimated to have been about one million pounds per month. In the United States, 500,000 dressings were prepared after the American Red Cross approval of sphagnum in March, 1918, until the war's end in November. It is estimated that the use of sphagnum in place of cotton for dressings resulted in a saving, to the British, of not less than £200,000 per year. Perhaps equally important was the release of scarce cotton for use in explosives. [16]
An account at the time of Sphagnum moss collection in Washington and Oregon states for the manufacture of bandages is given in the several newspapers. [17] [18] [19] [20] His work led, indirectly, to the development of the Sphagnum Products Company in 1922. [21]
Other important work included examinations of diseased apple and cereal crops. In the summers of 1914 and 1915, he was employed to examine an outbreak of fire blight in the orchards in the Yakima Valley. [22] This work led to several publications in the journal Phytopathology between 1915 and 1920, including, Collar-rot of apple trees in the Yakima Valley (1920). He was also hired by the US Government to survey cereal diseases in eastern Washington in 1915 as well as white pine blister rust in western Washington in 1922. [9]
His study of rusts, Preliminary list of the Uredinales of Washington, published in 1925, was the "first comprehensive rust classification ever compiled for the state of Washington." [1]
Hotson served on several professional associations, including as a director on the board of the American Phytopathological Society, Western Division (1936). [23]
In 1962, faculty, alumni, and friends of Hotson, Rigg, and Frye established the Frye-Hotson-Rigg Award to honour the former professors of Botany at the University of Washington. The award is given to undergraduate Biology students "conducting research using a plant, algae, or fungi system for work in botany, ecology, evolution, taxonomy, environmental science, or biodiversity." [24]
The Crassicarpon hotsonii cellobiose dehydrogenase is named in his honour. [25]
John William Hotson died on August 22, 1957 at the age of 88.
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophytasensu stricto. Bryophyta may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hornworts. Mosses typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients. Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are typically 0.2–10 cm (0.1–3.9 in) tall, though some species are much larger. Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 50 cm (20 in) in height. There are approximately 12,000 species.
Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss. Accumulations of Sphagnum can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions.
Joseph Charles Arthur was a pioneer American plant pathologist and mycologist best known for his work with the parasitic rust fungi (Pucciniales). He was a charter member of the Botanical Society of America, the Mycological Society of America, and the American Phytopathological Society. He was an elected member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a recipient of the first Doctorate in Sciences awarded by Cornell University. The standard author abbreviation Arthur is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Willis Linn Jepson was an early California botanist, conservationist, and writer.
Elmer Drew Merrill was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through the course of his career he authored nearly 500 publications, described approximately 3,000 new plant species, and amassed over one million herbarium specimens. In addition to his scientific work he was an accomplished administrator, college dean, university professor and editor of scientific journals.
Oakes Ames was an American biologist specializing in orchids. His estate is now the Borderland State Park in Massachusetts. He was the son of Governor of Massachusetts Oliver Ames and grandson of Congressman Oakes Ames.
Gustav Gassner was a German botanist and plant pathologist whose 1918 paper on vernalization has been called "the first systematic study of temperature as a factor in the developmental physiology of plants."
George Neville Jones, usually known as G. Neville Jones, (1903–1970) was an English-born botanist who spent most of his life and career in the United States. He was a professor of botany at the University of Illinois (Urbana) at the time of his death.
Daniel Elliot Stuntz was an American mycologist. He was often called "Bud" by his family and colleagues. When Stuntz was young, his immediate and extended family moved from Ohio to Seattle. He had a sister named Alice Stuntz Marionneaux, whom he frequently visited in the later years. Stuntz's father, Chauncey Richards Stuntz, who worked in the sugarcane business, would be absent to work for most of the time. In 1920s, he was promoted as the general manager of a sugar mill, 'Jobabo' in Oriente Province in Cuba. During his father's absence, Stuntz' mother, Evelyn Elliot Stuntz, managed the family and arranged the children's summer vacations.
Carroll William Dodge was an American mycologist and lichenologist. His major fields of study included human and mammalian parasitic fungi, lichen-associated fungi, and fungi forming subterranean sporophores.
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Charles Walker Cathcart, CBE, MB CM, FRCSEd, FRCSE was a Scottish surgeon who worked for most of his career at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE). As a young man he had represented Scotland at rugby on three occasions. During the First World War he jointly published an account of the value of sphagnum moss as a wound dressing which led to its widespread use by the British Army for that purpose.
Lois Clark (1884-1967) was an American botanist, bryologist, and professor who studied plants of the Northwestern United States, particularly the genus Frullania. She taught at the University of Idaho and the University of Washington. The standard author abbreviation L.Clark is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Howard Alvin Crum was an American botanist dedicated to the study of mosses, and was a renowned expert on the North American bryoflora.
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Louis Hermann Pammel (1862–1931) was an American botanist, conservationist, and professor of botany.
Harry James Smith was an American playwright and novelist. His best known plays include A Tailor-Made Man, first produced in 1917 and adapted into films of the same name in 1922 and 1931. His 1913 play Blackbirds was also adapted into films. Educated at Williams College and Harvard University, he also studied biology, taught briefly at Oberlin University and was an editor at The Atlantic Monthly before turning to writing full-time. He was killed in a traffic collision in British Columbia while collecting peat moss for its use in surgical dressings.
George Burton Rigg was an American botanist and ecologist, specializing in sphagnum bogs. In 1956 he received the Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America.
Theodore Christian Frye was an American botany professor and one of the world's leading experts on bryology.
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