Emil Chr. Hansen 5 Særtryk 1901-1909

596 HANSEN: CONSIDERATIONS ON TECHNICAL MYCOLOGY. and this development has continued down to the present clay. Some of them are supported by private associations, whilst others are, in addition to this, subsidised by the Governments of the countries in which they exist. A great many, more particularly of late years, were founded by private individuals, and are kept up by the varying circle of their customers. In contradistinction to the Carlsberg Laboratory, all these institutions have in a great measure for their object the carrying out of analyses for industrial purposes and the preparation of pure yeast for practical use in breweries, distilleries, etc. In addition to this, most of them also undertake scientific research work, and give instruction. Many of the large breweries on the Continent and in America have laboratories of their own. The “ Institut für Gärungsge- werbe at Berlin is, as far as I know, the only one that comprises almost all the various branches of the fermentation industries it has, however, no department for wine fermentation. A similar develop- ment, though less vigorous, has taken place in the other technical domains referred to above. I have alluded mainly to the state of things existing in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and North America. As to the British Isles I have not been able to get sufficient information. Technical mycology, of late years, has been admitted as a branch of instruction by well nigh all the technical high schools of the European Continent. At the outset, they confined themselves, in the main, to the industries connected with alcoholic fermentation, that being the department which had been most thoroughly studied; subsequently, they have also adopted the other branches. The old aristocratic universities and academies were, from time immemorial, rather inclined to look down upon practical research work. In not a few cases, it is true, they did so with good reason. But according as this study has produced results of great material value, its importance as an intellectual pursuit has at the same time increased. (here exists a close reciprocity of action between these two factors. Between the method and subject of theoretical science, on the one hand, and those of practical science on the other, there is, in fact, as we have seen, no essential difference. Even by means of such a branch of learning as technical mycology, it is possible for the teacher to impart to his students a sufficient amount of general biological training. Its scope is even more than wide enough to