19 



PHYTOPATHOLOGY IN DENMARK BEFORE ROSTRUP. 



It is necessary to premise that by phytopathology in this connect 

 tion I shall restrict this word to comprise the attack of the fungi on 

 plants, this being the part of phytopathology with which Rostrup 

 chiefly dealt; on account of circumstances he had not the opportunity 

 of dealing so much with the noxious animals etc. 



From the very outset phytopathology — as is still the case — was, 

 to a much greater extent than mycology 

 connected with the interest of practical life, 

 though each has several common relations 

 with the other; at first phytopathology rela= 

 ted to agriculture, and the first Danish book 

 on phytopathology was written by Fabricius 

 who, from 1770 to 1775, was Professor oecos 

 nomiae of the University of Copenhagen 

 i. e. he had to lecture on political and agris 

 cultural economy etc. 



JoHAN Christian Fabricius was born at 

 Tender in 1745 and died in Kiel on March 

 3. 1808. In fact he was neither an economist 

 nor a pathologist but chiefly an entomologist. 

 His works to this effect were fundamental to 

 that science ("Systema entomologiae" Kbh. 



1775 and several others) but in spite of this we cannot but admire his 

 "Forsog til en Plantepatologi" (Essay of a Phytopathology) as a work 

 marvellous in that age; from its whole scheme and all its details it is 

 to be seen that Fabricius was an ingenious observer of nature, in 

 possession of great observing power and correct understanding of his 

 observations. He had studied with Linne at Upsala from 1762 to 1764 

 at the same time as his friend Johan Zoega; afterwards he had tra= 

 veiled for five years almost all over Europe, visiting London, Paris 

 etc. and in this manner acquiring all the knowledge of his age on the 

 subjects in which he was chiefly interested. 



Although a pupil of Linne he protests against the thesis set forth 

 by his master (in Mundus invisibilis) that smutted corn when mace? 

 rated in water was transformed into small worms. He has the right 

 understanding of the parasitic fungi being independent plants, and he 

 will not assent to the opinion of Gleditsch, that the disease of the 

 crop in the fields should be due to unripe grains and the like; he 

 sets forth such sensible objections as that it is his experience that 

 grains from a clean field will give a clean crop even if there be unripe 

 grains among them and that Secale will never be smutted. Nor will 



2* 



J. C. Fabriciu-s. 



From sn engraving. 



