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Man in Belgian Congo on which 1 had written a few papers with the financial help
of the «Institut pour la Recherche scientifique en Afrique Centrale» (IRSAC), the
first Secretary General of which, my friend Jean-Paul Harroy, honours me by
attending the present conference. G. C. Ainsworth had invited me on behalf of the
group which was at the origin of the now famous British Mycopathological Society.
I had many other contacts with Professor Austwick who with G. C. Ainsworth was
the author of a good book on fungal diseases of animals. That was a challenge and
I dared to remark that none of the AA was a medical or a veterinarian Doctor. But
as you know, everything may happen on the other side of the Channel. If not the
rule that was also the case of Jacqueline Walker, a very good mycologist, daughter
of Professor J. T. Duncan, who never persuaded himself to make something new of
what I have described under the name Histoplasma duboisii. As a matter of fact the
book of Ainsworth and Austwick was so good that for years I made use of it in my
teaching and in some of my publications.
A remarkable circumstance where I had the pleasure to meet professor Austwick
was in Ibadan on the occasion of a symposium organized for the study of
Dermatophilosis of Cattle, a real scourge for the country and a field familiar to P.
K C. Austwick who had made a study of the disease in Scotland, in New Zealand
and in Australia if not elsewhere. I took this opportunity to remember that the
microorganism responsible for the Dermatite contagieuse des bovidés had been
described by the Belgian veterinarian Van Saceghem as early as 1915 in Katanga,
now Shaba (Zaire). Peter Austwick had defended the name Dermatophilus congolen-
sis proposed by Van Saceghem and from then on I believe that the name dermatophilosis
has replaced most of the other names given to the disease not only in cattle but
also in sheep and even in man. You will read with interest the text of Peter K. C.
Austwick : «Aerobiology and Allergy». We were several to be amazed at his assertion
that allergy does not kill and all in all, that allergy is a disease of rather weak
importance, a fact that I proposed for discussion to Prof. de Schouwer, honorary
Secretary General for Public Health, also present at this meeting. He accepted
eagerly.
Je ne puis être aussi long pour vous présenter les quatre autres orateurs.
Le Dr Charles De Vroey dirige mon ancien laboratoire avec un succès que le
nombre de ses élèves belges et étrangers démontre. A ses côtés, Madame Danielle
Swinne s’est fait une réputation dans l’étude des souches de Cryptococcus neofor-
mans et de leur relation éventuelle avec le SIDA. Madame Pelseneer, outre l’enseignement
de la mycologie médicale qu’elle assure à l’Université Libre de Bruxelles,
a développé à la Faculté des Sciences un aspect fort intéressant de la mycologie, celui
de la lutte contre diverses pestes d’intérêt agronomique au moyen de champignons
entomophtorales. C ’est dans le laboratoire de Madame Nolard que je me suis réfugié
lorsqu’il était dirigé par Madame le Pharmacien De Meyer ici présente. L’actuel
directeur de l’institut d’Hygiène et d’Épidémiologie, le professeur Thiers, a bien