The formative years: 1920 to 1949

Abstract

The direction of medical mycology was affected by the occurrence of a number of scientific events during the 1920s. The first medical mycology laboratory was established in 1926 at Columbia University. Serological and cell mediated studies were conducted with crude antigens of C. immitis and Cryptococcus neoformans; diagnostic laboratory tests began to be developed; Pseudallescheria boydii (as Allescheria boydii) was identified as an etiologic agent of disease (mycetoma); revision of reported cases and isolates were conducted as a means of classifying different isolates within a species or genus; better descriptions of histoplasmosis capsulati and its etiologic agent were published; and sporotrichosis was declared an occupational disease. Serologic and other diagnostic tests were among the major contributions singled out by 9% and 10.1%, respectively of the questionnaire respondents (Table 4, Appendix A). Development of skin tests and the work of Raimond Jacques Sabouraud were considered the most important contributions by 7% of the 86 individuals who answered the question regarding these issues (Table 3, Appendix A). For Jose Vazquez (questionnaire), “Sabouraud’s book, Les Teignes, on the dermatophytes is one of the first descriptions of fungal diseases and their etiologic agents”.