AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Ever since the middle ages, when the miasmatic theory gave a convenient explanation of plaques, people suspected the air of being a medium in which particles invisible to the naked eye are suspended and dispersed. In the 19th century the controversy over the question of spontaneous generation and the establishement of the science of bacteriology caused a great interest in the micro-flora of the air and thus originates a branch of science known now as aerobiology. Aerobiology as defined by the late F. C. Meier in 1938, is the study of aerial carriage of microscopic particles. Durham (1941) when quoting Meier’s definition suggested a slight modification of the above mentioned term to aeromicrobiology thus defining more clearly the actual field of investigation. At the present time the study of aerobiology as specified by The Committee on Apparatus in Aerobiology of the National Research Council (1941) is carried on by workers in several fields having a rather wide range of objectives. [...] 1. Sanitary air analysis and disinfection; 2. air borne pollen dissemination; 3. microorganisms in the upper air; 4. epidemiology of plant diseases; 5. insect population and migration in the air. In approaching the study of aerobiology we have to bear in mind the characteristics of the outer atmosphere that provides an infinite source of dilution, as compared with semi-enclosed atmosphere in which the dilution is restricted, thus facilitating the spread of infection.[...]