MYCOLOGY DURING THE PAST FIFTY YEARS 577 



of Lindegren on yeasts, of Silver-Dowding and others on Gelasinospora, and of 

 Keitt and his associates on Venturia showed clearly that the fungi were richly 

 rewarding material for productive and significant work in the field of Genetics. 

 So notable has been the progress that at the present time most research groups 

 and laboratories feel they are not adequately equipped for competitive produc- 

 tivity unless an impressive array of mycological material is included in their 

 extensive armament. 



As a final example it is noteworthy that the advances in Mycology have 

 served not only as the instigation, but even as the basic construction, for the 

 development, in the long-established and ever-extending field of Medicine, 

 of the new and important area of Medical Mycology. During this period, the 

 field of medical mycology, at first regarded with some reserve, has gained 

 acceptance as a reputable and significant area of medicine. This has been 

 reflected in an increasing respect for mycologists through the growing realiza- 

 tion that even though Ph.D.'s rather than M.D.'s, mycologists could render 

 valuable service through their intimate knowledge of the nature and activities 

 of the causal fungi. From the stimulating participation in this more effective 

 working relationship has come significant productivity. Following the epoch- 

 making volumes of the great pioneer Sabouraud and the early work of Castel- 

 lani, Brumpt, and others in Europe, there have appeared in this country such 

 medically and mycologically helpful books as those by Lewis and Hopper, by 

 Conant and his associates, by Schwartz and others, together with books with 

 more specialized utility such as the encyclopedic compendium of C. W. Dodge, 

 the small but helpful identification handbook of Hazen and Reed, and the 

 useful volume assembled under the editorship of Nickerson, with its discus- 

 sion of the physiological and biological aspects of the causal fungi by con- 

 tributing specialists. Similarly, in Europe the literature has been strengthened 

 by contributions of Langeron and others in France, of Nannizzi and of 

 Redaelli and Ciferri and their associates in Italy. 



In this area then, there has been steady progress reflected in a notable 

 increase in the effective working literature, both in the textbooks and working 

 manuals in the clinical, epidemiological, and other aspects of medical mycology 

 as such and in the more specialized literature of a more strictly mycological 

 nature and fundamental character on the identity, relationship, behavior, 

 physiology, and biochemistry of the fungi concerned. There has developed 

 also an increasing awareness on the part of mycologists of pertinent publica- 

 tions in the more strictly medical journals and on the part of medical men 

 of the valuable papers appearing in the more technical journals of Mycology. 



In particular, there have been numerous notable advances, some of which, 

 because of their especial interest and importance, may merit mention here 

 as representative examples. Notably, there has been a growing understanding 

 of the fundamental biochemical mechanisms involved in the lack of acquired 

 immunity common in the case of most human diseases of fungus origin, with 



