The advance of the fungi

the long version

This book relates the story of the battle against fungi from the year the potato blight struck Europe (1845) up to 1940. It chronicles, step by step, the battle of man against the potato blight, phylloxera, oidium, larch canker, coffee-leaf rust, anthrax, cattle plague, salmon disease, and other fungal diseases. Based on original scientific papers, drawing on the newspapers and scientific journals of the day, the book takes into account the work of all the great names in bacteriological research: Pasteur, Anton de Bary, Tulasne, Berkeley, Woronin, Jensen, and many others. It records all the discoveries that have contributed to successful extermination or partial restriction of fungal diseases of plants and animals, as well as many of the false discoveries that have in some cases slowed the process of research.