This book is the first to give a well-documented, illustrated survey of the historical background to disease caused by fungi in man and domesticated animals. Medical and veterinary mycology includes the study of infectious diseases caused by actinomycetes and allergic conditions induced by both fungi and actinomycetes, and their history is also described here. The foundations of medical mycology have been laid over the past centuries but have only been completed during recent decades. This is therefore an appropriate moment to write the history of this specialty, which involves the...

In this volume, first published in 1976, Dr Ainsworth gives a straightforward account of the main views held about fungi for the past three millennia and the development of the study of fungi as a branch of science for the last 250 years. The existing literature is widely scattered and much of it suffers from difficulty of access. In this volume there is documented an outline of the development of the main areas of mycology, with emphasis on the solution of the major problems that have confronted students of fungi and novel discoveries which have given new insights. A number of important...