Introduction to the History of Medical and Veterinary Mycology

A well-documented, illustrated survey of the historical background to disease caused by fungi.

G. C. Ainsworth (Author)

9780521524551, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 7 November 2002

244 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.364 kg

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 collaboration of medically qualified and non-medically trained workers. Dr Ainsworth's long and varied career in mycology fits him ideally to the task he has undertaken and he has drawn on his experience to provide an invaluable scholarly perspective on the area.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Aetiology: dermatophytes and the taxonomic problem
3. Names: problems of nomenclature
4. Problems of pathogenic status with special reference to mycelial yeasts
5. Epidemiological problems
6. Therapeutic problems
7. Spores as allergens: a problem of sensitization
8. Mycetism, mycotoxicoses, and hallucinogenic fungi: toxicological problems
9. Training mycopathologists: an educational problem
10. Regional developments
Postscript
Notes on the text
Bibliography and chronology
Names index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]