HISTORICAL 



A SCIENCE of Plant Disease was an impossibility until 

 knowledge existed concerning the nature of the parasitic 

 organisms, the fungi and bacteria. The science of Plant 

 Diseases or of Phytopathology was in its early formative 

 period between 1853 and 1870, the very foundations being 

 laid in the pioneer work of Berkeley and De Bary in es- 

 tablishing the parasitism of the fungi, and in Pasteur's 

 fundamental work on Bacteria and Spontaneous Genera- 

 tion. 



. To be sure some of the most conspicuous diseases had 

 long been known by sight. Blight and mildew were re- 

 ferred to in both the Old and the New Testament. Wheat 

 rust was mentioned by Aristotle 350 b.c. and reference 

 to mildew is found in King Lear, Act III, Sc. 4. There 

 was even legislation regarding wheat rust as early as 1760. 

 Yet there was little or no real knowledge of plant diseases 

 in those times, beyond the fact that diseases existed. 



Following the pioneer pubhcations of Berkeley and De 

 Bary came the more complete treatises of Frank (1880, 

 1895), Sorauer (1874, 1886, 1906), Kirchner (1890), Tubeuf 

 (1894), and others. 



It was not until 1873 that plant pathology became a 

 part of instruction in botany, and not until 1875 that 

 special courses in pathology were given in any of the schools 

 of America. 



A series of papers begun by Burrill in 1873, another by 

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