Book excerpt: Half a century ago our knowledge of mycoses, especially pulmonary mycoses, was rather fragmentary. It was limited to rare case reports as oddities. Accordingly, in the "Handbuch der speziellen pathologischen Anatomie und Histologie" the chapter on lung diseases caused by budding and spore-forming fungi by J. WATJEN (Halle) took up as little as 27 pages. Only ARNDT (G6ttingen) could report on several cases from which he made his observations on actinomycotic changes of the lungs and pleura. Since then our knowledge of mycoses has deepened and expanded in an unpre dictable manner. This progress was mainly due to research and publications in the USA and South America. In Central Europe the number of cases of mycoses has increased during the last two decades, being reported especially as a second disease in patients with spontaneous or iatrogenic destruction of the bone marrow after treatment of cancer with cytostatic agents. The number of known types of pathogenic fungi has increased. The knowledge of their types and conditions of growth have given rise to a subspecialty. Therefore, a great need has arisen for a new edition of the chapter on mycoses in the Henke Lubarsch-Roessle Handbook of Special Pathological Anatomy and Histology.