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Contributions of N.A. Cobb to Nematology, Plant Pathology, Mycology, and Agronomy.

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 Born June 30th in Spencer, Massachusetts; the only
child of William H. Cobb and Jane A. Brigelow.

Cobb, N.A. 1887. A list of plants found

Worked the night-shift in a shingle growing wild within thirty miles of
Nathan A. Cobb at mill; began to acquire his broad, Amherst. S.E. Bridgeman & Co.,
Northampton, Massachusetts. 51 pp.
a very young age practical knowledge of handicraft and
manufacturing plus a fascination with
tinkering that would serve him well
throughout his career; came to know
the noted landscape painter Joseph
A sketch of the Proctor farm Greenwood who helped develop his
excellent artistic skills.

Managed a 150-acre farm with crops and

livestock; established experimental plots;
used 1/3 of his salary ($25.00) to purchase a
microscope. Diseases of apple and rose
Nathan at 14 years of age
caused by fungi
Passed the teacher’s exam and taught at the
local Spencer public school; rapidly excelled
and soon took charge of the District
Grammar School in Spencer.
N.A. Cobb mail-
ordered a microscope
for $25.00
Taught drawing and chemistry at Williston Seminary in
Easthampton, Massachusetts; soon placed in charge of all
natural sciences, including zoology, physiology, geology
and botany; created zoological and botanical laboratories
Worchester Polytechnic Institute, Worchester, and introduced students to both dissecting and compound
Massachusetts microscopes.
Nathan A. Cobb as a seminary
Graduated from Worchester professor
Polytechnic Institute with a
Cobb, N.A. 1888. Beiträge zur Earned his Ph.D. in Jena, Germany under Lang,
anatomie und ontogenie der B.Sc. in chemistry.
Haeckel, Hertwig and others at the University of
Nematoden. Dissertation. 36 pp.
(Ph.D.Thesis, Jena, Germany) Jena; showed early attention to nematodes with
Published his first work, A List of the Plants Found his dissertation, “Beitrage zur anatomie und Root-knot
Growing Wild Within Thirty Miles of Amherst. ontogenie der Nematoden.” nematode on
N. A. Cobb in 1889 parsnip

Immigrated to Australia, what he called “the biological wonderland.”

Appointed to the British Association Station at Naples, Italy; there he
named his first genus of nematode, the marine nematode, Tricoma.
Published a paper on the root-knot nematode in the Agricultural
Appointed by the New South Wales Gazette of New South Wales, his first on a plant-parasitic species.
government as a consulting
pathologist for the newly established
Department of Agriculture; six
months later, became Vegetable
Pathologist and Senior Scientist of
the New South Wales Department of
Agriculture; over the next sixteen
years as a plant pathologist in
Australia, published nearly 2000 Traveled widely in Europe and America attending
pages on diseases caused by fungi, agricultural meetings and visiting universities and
bacteria, and nematodes, wheat and agricultural experiment stations.
the wheat industry, in addition to
N. A. Cobb in Hawaii using a microscope to examine diseased sugarcane
papers on laboratory methods and
Returned to Australia and published papers on Cobb at work in the field
instruments.
grain elevators, the universal nomenclature of
wheat, and the California wheat industry.
Went to Hawaii to establish the Division of Pathology and Physiology of the
Hawaiian Sugar Planters Experiment Station; focused on diseases of sugarcane Analysis of wheat varieties
and their control; published five bulletins over the two year period; observed Returned to the U.S. and was appointed to the United States and characters
Dorylaimus bulbiferus and made one of the earliest mentions of parasites on Department of Agriculture on recommendation of E. F. Smith.
nematodes; proposed numerous suggestions for new morphological terms such
as amphid, phasmid, and deirid. Transferred to the USDA Bureau of Plant Industry headquarters
in Washington, D.C, and appointed as Agricultural Technologist;
focused early on the standardization of cotton grades.
An ingenious inventor, held a number of patents for
photographic devices and microscopic accessories;
developed equipment and techniques used to separate Turned attention to the study of nematodes and
nematodes from the soil and prepare them for microscopic established a separate branch of science for their study.
Fungi associated with sugarcane
study; made or enhanced numerous devices, including a soil- Cobb, N.A. 1901. The California wheat
sampling tube and microscope slide, often referred to as a Published his first major paper in the United States on nematodes, industry. Agric. Gazette NSW
Cobb slide, with an aluminum frame and dual cover slips “Draconema: a remarkable genus of marine free-living nematodes,” in 12:1317-1348.
that allowed the subject to be viewed from both sides; many the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.
of his creations became standards in nematode research.
Established the journal,
Contributions to the Science of
Published “Nematodes and their Nematology; in the first issue,
relationships,” a feature article in called for the removal of
the Yearbook of the Department nematode research from
of Agriculture, and the seminal helminthology and for the
paper in his campaign for a creation of a new sub-discipline
science of nematology. of science called nematology. Turntable of microscopes for comparing
individual nematode specimens
Cobb, N.A. 1915. Nematodes and their relationships.
Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1914. USDA created the Division of Nematology in
Washington, DC. Pp. 457-490.
the Bureau of Plant Industry and Cobb became
its head; he built a staff of eager and talented
scientists like A.L. Taylor, B.G. Chitwood, G.
Thorne, and G. Steiner.

Bunonema inequalis
Died at the Bethesda Naval Hospital
Illustrator, assistant, and friend, W. E. Chambers,
gave nematology some of the finest illustrations of during a routine checkup.
nematodes ever made
Nathan Augustus Cobb
(1859-1932)
Chambersiella rodens, genus name in honor of artist
assistant, W. E. Chambers

J.D. Eisenback, Dept. Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060 and P.D. Peterson, Dept. Plant Pathology, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (APS Historian)
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