2 THE FOUNDING OF MYCOLOGY 



Zacharias Janssen's compound microscope. This microscope and 

 those made during the succeeding period of approximately 200 

 years were little more than toys or objects of curiosity. Third, 

 there had early come into being a belief that microscopic life 

 originated by spontaneous generation. According to this theory, 

 all sorts of non-living materials might become transformed into 

 living matter, an idea that dominated biologic thinking from the 

 time of ancient Greek civilization until the classic researches of 

 Pasteur in approximately 1860. The experiments of Pasteur con- 

 firmed in part the observations of Leeuwenhoek, Redi, Spallan- 

 zani, and others and established once and for all that living 

 creatures give rise to other living^ thingrs like themselves. It 

 should be clearly comprehended, however, that these workers 

 did not settle the problem of the origin of life. Fourth, fer- 

 micntations were long held to be purely chemical decomposi- 

 tions, a concept fostered by Berzelius and Liebig. A series of 

 researches, culminating in those of Pasteur, however, established 

 that the agencies which induce fermentations are living microbes. 



There were no doubt other factors which militated against 

 the development of mycology, but all of them contributed in 

 some manner to the impact of the four just discussed. In the 

 brief historical sketch that follows passing mention is made of 

 the more important landmarks in the development of present- 

 day concepts of mycology. 



Early acquaintance with fungi. Man's early knowledge of 

 the higher plants, the beginnings of which are lost in antiquity, 

 undoubtedly centered around their use for food and medicine. 

 The same stimuli may be assumed to have prompted man to em- 

 ploy fungi similarly, and the kno\\'ledge thus gained ^\'as cer- 

 tainly transmitted to others. The preservation and widespread 

 dissemination of such information, however, wxre seriously 

 handicapped until the fifteenth century, \\'hen printing came into 

 use. 



Abundant evidence from the wTitings of the Greeks and the 

 Romans shows that they \^'ere able to distinguish edible and 

 poisonous mushrooms. The high esteem in which they held 

 these plants is indicated by a painting, identified as representing 

 Lactarms deliciosiis, found buried beneath volcanic ash among 

 the ruins of Pompeii. Biblical accounts indicate a familiarity 

 among the people of that time with the diseases of crop plants, 



