Mycology Euripides (480-406 B.C.). The Greek philosopher Theophrastos of Eresos (371-288 B.C.) was perhaps the first to try to systematically classify plants; mushrooms were considered to be plants missing certain organs. It was later Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D.), who wrote about truffles in his encyclopedia "Naturalis historia". The word "mycology" comes from the Greek: μύκης ("mukēs"), meaning "fungus" and the suffix ("-logia"), meaning "study". The Middle Ages saw little advancement in the body of knowledge about fungi. Rather, the invention of the printing press allowed some authors to disseminate superstitions and misconceptions about the fungi that had been perpetuated by
Quick Professor of Biology Quick Professor of Biology The Quick Professorship of Biology is one of the senior professorships in biology at the University of Cambridge. Frederick James Quick (1836-1902) was a wealthy coffee merchant who was employed in the London law-firm "Quick, Reek and James" at the time of his death. He bequeathed the majority of his wealth to the University of Cambridge (he had been a law student at Trinity Hall, graduating in 1859) to be used in the 'study of vegetable and animal biology'. After much debate, it was decided that the professorship should primarily cover the field of protozoology, and