I. INTRODUCTION 



During the past several decades, there have 

 appeared increasingly insistent reports on algae and plankton — reports 

 concerned chiefly with developing a new source of food for a world 

 population rapidly outgrowing its arable land areas. These articles, appear- 

 ing in technical journals 1 - 18 and in the public press, 19 * 26 have been 

 authored primarily by botanists, nutritionists, economic philosophers, and 

 lay scientific writers. 



The concern of these individuals seems amply justified, not merely 

 by future census potentialities, but also by actual present shortages. These 

 include the frequent caloric famines affecting many nations, as well as 

 the qualitative nutritional deficiencies. The latter are pointedly exemplified 

 by the dietary fat shortages in Europe during World War II, the notorious 

 hypovitaminoses of many Asians, and the recently highlighted protein 

 deficiency, kwashiorkor, 27 - 28 of the Africans. 



With the growing recognition of the importance of nutritive and 

 biochemical substances in the prevention and therapeusis of disease, it is 

 remarkable how singularly little attention has been paid by the medical 

 press to algae and plankton. As Tilden 29 has so aptly put it: "Here in 

 America only a small group of college professors of botany are familiar 

 with marine plants. Phycology has been a science far removed from all 

 other subjects. It is too difficult for the biochemist, the zoologist, or the 

 physicist to attempt to work with *f orms^ of which he knows nothing. As 

 for physicians, the depth of their ignorance in the subject is abysmal." 



The present monograph attempts to assemble in tangible form such 

 knowledge of algae and plankton as may be pertinent to medicine — 

 knowledge which presently is diffused in a wide variety of non-medical 

 publications. Such a compilation of background data, of current concepts, 

 and of future potential might conceivably serve as a stimulus for wider 

 activity in this field. 



