132 



LOWER PLANTS, DISEASES, AND MEDICINE 



all time. If Judge Chcever, wlio recog- the lime, had recognized the fungus, 

 nizcd the fungus, had used the lime we would probably have fewer Irish 

 with his copper, or if Morren who used policemen in Boston today than we do. 



QUESTIONS 



1. Discuss the nature and importance of 

 wheat rust to man. 



2. Explain the nature and effects of St. 

 Anthony's Fire. Is it known today? 



Trace the history and consequences of 

 late blight of potatoes. 



Who produced experimentally the first 

 plant disease and what time relation- 

 ship did this work have to that of L. 

 Pasteur? 



E. C. Stakman 



The Role of Plant Pathology in the Scientific and Social 

 Development of the World 



Reprinted with the permission of the author 

 and publisher from The A.I.B.S. Bulletin 

 8(5) :15-18, 1958. 



"The history of man is the record 

 of a hungry creature in search of food." 

 Thus wrote van Loon in The Story of 

 Mankind. The statement may shock 

 some people but it will not even sur- 

 prise biologists, who are concerned 

 with problems of life and what sus- 

 tains it and of death and what causes 

 it. They are more likely to be shocked 

 by the general lack of comprehension 

 of the basic truth in the statement. 

 Primitive man must have led a precari- 

 ous existence, both because of the un- 



certainty of food supplies and the un- 

 certainty of continued existence in the 

 face of violence and disease. The funda- 

 mentally biological nature of many of 

 man's problems is too often overlooked; 

 much history is indeed a record of 

 man's attempt to assure his food sup- 

 plies. 



Man had to become at least a prac- 

 tical biologist in order to develop a 

 civilization; and he has had to become 

 a continually better biologist in order 

 to preserve it. His most basic problems 



