Air-Borne Fungi in New Haven, Connecticut *

The number and variety of the common fungi in the air vary as the result of a great many factors. Their tendency to contaminate cultures (particularly of skin scrapings) as well as their allergenic properties confer upon them a certain degree of importance.2' 3 The present studies were designed to familiarize us with the common fungi that might contaminate our cultures of skin scrapings from patients, from whom we were attempting to secure pathogenic dermatophytes. The studies were enlarged, at the suggestion of our colleagues in the allergy clinic, so as to provide a year's record of the common local varieties of air-borne fungi, some of which might have allergenic properties.