DEVELOPMENTS IN TERMINOLOGY 421 



pathology up to that time had been largely taxonomic mycology, 

 and in fact it remains all too much so to this day. 



10. The organization of the American Phytopathological So- 

 ciety in 1909 and the publication of Phytopathology, the official 

 organ of this society, beginning in 1911. The charter member- 

 ship included 130 names, but the membership has now grown to 

 well over 1000 persons. These two agencies, the society and the 

 journal, have been potent factors in stimulating interest and in 

 directing the trend of phytopathologic development not only 

 throughout the United States but also throughout the world. 



11. The initiation of the abstract journal, Review of Applied 

 Mycology, at the Kew Gardens in 1922. This journal, published 

 at regular intervals throughout the year, contains complete refer- 

 ences to all current publications on plant pathology, together with 

 a summary of the content of each report. It is absolutely indis- 

 pensable as a tool in keeping abreast of developments in mycology 

 and plant pathology. 



DEVELOPMENTS IN TERMINOLOGY 



Correct terminology is essential properly to express concepts 

 in any field of learning. Certain terms have been used both in 

 mycology and in phytopathology without regard to precision 

 of expression, and, as a consequence, confusion and inaccuracies 

 have appeared. Fortunately some of these inaccuracies have been 

 rectified, as inevitably occurs during the course of the normal 

 development of a science. The terminology in both fields could 

 be expected to have much in common, especially during their 

 formative periods. In fact, in the beginning the terminology of 

 mycology and phytopathology reflected the influence of animal 

 pathology and medicine, since many of the early workers in the 

 newer fields were medical practitioners or at least had been 

 trained in medicine. This fact is demonstrated by the use in 

 Fabricius' treatise of 1774 of such terms as anasarca, gangraena, 

 tabes, exulceratio, polysarcia, and carcinoma. Moreover, in the 

 period before 1850, the employment of such names in connection 

 with diseases of plants as icterus, anemia, phlegmasia, fluxion or 

 bleeding, verrucosis, and exanthema is further confirmation of the 

 influence of medical terminology. 



